Page 66 of Acceptance
Venom
Knocking on Colt’s apartment, Venom leans against the doorframe with his forearm and lets out a deep breath. “Please don’t be having sex. Please don’t be having sex,” he mutters under his breath.
Colt answers just as Venom’s about to walk away, and the sounds of a hair dryer come from the barely cracked bathroom door. “I thought I heard a knock. What’s up?”
“Am I interrupting?”
Holding up his hands, Venom fights his chuckle at the five fingers with bandages on them. “Nah, we were able to get all the glass out of her hair. She’s just drying it now.”
The dryer stops, and Lex calls out, “Was that the door?”
“Yeah, we have company, so don’t walk out here naked.’
The bathroom door opens, and she rolls her eyes. “I don’t walk around many places naked. Two babies kind of wrecked this body.”
“Not true,” he says. “I fucking love that body.”
“Yeah, yeah. Down, boy,” she says and turns to Venom with a smile. “How’s Marnie? Is she okay?”
“I think she was more in shock than anything else. A shower seemed to help her, and she’s more coherent than she was when you first brought her back.”
“That’s good. The first time you get your ass kicked for the club can be a bit jarring. I was pretty sure she didn’t have a concussion, though.”
Colt snorts. “You’ve had enough to know. More than me, I think.”
The fact Lex has taken beatings for the club doesn’t sit well with Venom. None of the women should be in harm’s way, but he supposes that makes him a chauvinist.
“Lex, can I talk to you about something?”
“I’ll, uh, go see if Brock needs help with anything,” Colt says and kisses Lex’s temple.
She laughs, and Venom knows as well as she does that the only type of help Colt can offer with anything technology-wise is moral support. It’s the furthest from his strong suit.
“What’s going on?” she asks and moves to sit on the bed in her T-shirt and shorts. She looks so casual and comfortable as she looks up at him with blue eyes.
Looking out into the hallway, it hits him just then that Colt actually left. He left another man in his apartment with his wife, and the typical overwhelming flood of emotion hits Venom. He trusts them both.
“Will you hate me if I give Marnie another chance?” he blurts out.
She laughs. “Hate you?”
“Will you think less of me?”
“Venom, your choices are and always have been yours to make. I’m not going to condemn you for them. Unless you bring Cinder back in here. I do not like that woman,” Lex says, her knee pulled up to her chest with her arms wrapped around it.
Moving further into the room, he leans against the dresser, mindful to keep the door open. No matter how much trust Colt may have in them, he never wants there to be a question about his loyalty to either of them.
“Your opinion of me matters. Will you see me as stupid or weak for taking this risk again?”
“Do you feel she’s made up for the pain she caused you in Summerville?”
He nods. “I do…”
“But?”
His hand rubs his face, and he sighs. “Second chances are new to me. You’re the first one to really give me one, but before that, it’s always been one and done. What if… What if she doesn’t mean what she says?”
“That’s a risk you take with just about anyone in this life. Do you want to play it safe and end up without the woman who owns your heart for the rest of your life?”
