The room went quiet and all eyes were on Riven and me. Well all but Alisa, who continued to sit on the couch sipping on her wine while Xavier looked away and smirked.
"You're dating Riven?" Seraphina asks with a stern tone in her voice. "Since when?"
"Well um..." I hesitate.
"It's none of your business," Riven jumps in immediately. "If she was just a friend I wouldn't have brought her here."
"I have a right to know, the last girlfriend you had was nothing but a-" Seraphina stops herself. She looks over at Xavier and exhales. "I'm just looking out for you, I doubt you want a replay of what happened."
"And like I said it's none of your business," Riven holds my hand and leads me away. "I would appreciate it if you stayed away from our relationship, like you said we wouldn't want a repeat of what happened."
As we walk out of the main hall Riven glances over at Xavier, who clearly saw right through our plan.
"And this time I won't hesitate to stop anyone that thinks they know what's best for me."
Xavier chuckles under his breath not responding to Riven. That was definitely a first but what wasn't Riven telling me?
***
Riven and I enter the study and he closes the doors behind him.
"Well that could have gone better," I say with a sigh as I sit down on the couch. "I wasn't expecting her to be so... so-"
"Evil?" Riven says pouring himself and a glass of wine. "Consider yourself lucky, that is the best it could have gone. If she wanted, she would have had the both of us thrown out of here without batting an eyelash."
Riven walks over to me and hands me a glass then sits beside me.
"She is beautiful though, I'll give her that," I say with a chuckle. "I can see where Alisha got her looks from."
"You can also see where Xavier got his attitude from too," Riven says with a slight smile on his face as he takes a sip from his glass. "Seeing him just hits a nerve, it's like I want to punch him in the face every time."
"Is this your version of being nice?" Xavier says as he and Alisha stand at the door. "Because I thought you were told to be on your best behavior?"
"Oh give it a rest already you big stick in the mud!" Alisha says shoving Xavier aside and sits down on the chair opposite of us holding her glass in her hands. "Mom and dad aren't in here so why don't you stop with the high and mighty act."
"I swear I'm just a joke to you," Xavier says walking over to the bar and getting himself a drink.
"You know what I brought Violet in here, it was more so for us to be alone," Riven says. "What do you want?"
"Well we want answers," Alisha says leaning forward looking directly at me. "Since when did this little dating idea happen?"
Riven and I look at each other, he shrugs his shoulders and puts his arm around me.
"Is it really so hard to believe we could be dating?" Riven says jokingly.
Seriously...
"It's not hard to believe, more like it's not like you to announce something like that so casually." Alisha smiles. "And the fact dad didn't lose his head could only mean that he was on board with this, am I right?"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Xavier says joining us. "Dad would never approve of something so stupid."
"Well then do I have news for you, you big idiot!" Riven laughs.
"What he means to say," I say jabbing Riven with my elbow. "He wasn't necessarily against the idea."
"Well that's an interesting turn of events," Alisha says leaning back. "I didn't think he would agree to something like that, especially knowing mom's reaction."
"This is unbelievable." Xavier sighs. "You're so desperate for attention that you're dragging her into your mess?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Riven snaps.
"Seriously Xavier, you really want to pick a fight now?" Alisha says annoyed. "Can't you two just get along for one night?"
"Alisha's right, besides you both, promised to be civil," I say, trying to ease the tension. "If your dad finds out who knows how he'll react!"
"Hold on, I want to know what you mean by wanting attention?" Riven demands as he stands up in front of Xavier. "And why are you so worried about Violet all of a sudden?"
"Riven please just-"
"Violet I wouldn't get involved," Alisha says, cutting me off. "It's better if they lash out now than in front of our parents."
I sigh and nervously watch the two brothers go at it.
"You think showing off a girlfriend is going to prove something?" Xavier says. "If anything it'll only prove that you're falling into the same trap you did before!"
"Same trap?!" Riven shouts. "You set everything up, and if you think for a second Violet is going to fall for your stupid games, you're highly mistaken!"
"Oh, am I?" Xavier suddenly looks over at me. "Then why don't you ask her what happened in my office?"
My eyes widen at his words, both Alisha and Riven look at me with worry and concern. Xavier shoves Riven aside and walks up to me, he hovers above me lifting my head up to look at him.
"Do you want to tell them?" he brushes his thumb across my lip. "Or should I?"
I slap Xavier's hand away from me and stand up filled with anger. He was really willing to go so low to hurt his own brother and he definitely didn't seem to have a problem using me to make that happen.
"Violet?" Riven says looking at me. "Did something else happen before I walked in?"
I look at Riven and take a deep breath, I notice Xavier has that condescending smile on his face as he must have felt as if he accomplished something. But there was no way I'd let him walk out here with the advantage, two could play that game.
"Something else did happen..," I say looking away nervously. "I won't lie or hide anything from you, but basically Xavier and I kissed."
"What?!" Alisha says shocked and stands up. "But I thought you-"
"I don't have feelings for him," I say clearing the air. "I just... I just felt something."
I look at Riven, the look in his eyes told me he might have known what I was feeling, but for some reason, I feared his reaction.
"I just need to know one thing," Alisha says to me. "Who kissed who first?"
"Xavier kind of made it happen," I hesitate. "But I didn't stop him either..."
"No I understand very well," Alisha says calmly.
She walks up behind Xavier turning him around to face her, within that second she lifts her hand and slaps him across the face. You could hear the impact her hand made with his face as it echoed.
"You just don't learn do you?!" Alisha shouts. "Was the first time you pulled a stunt like this enough? Now you're going to drag her into it, have you ever thought about the consequences?!"
Alisha was in full rage mode, she was angry and to the point where it seemed like she could only see red. I notice her clench her fist trying to keep herself calm, however, Xavier looks at her.
"You think I give a damn what you think?" he mocks her. "You think you can play hero all the time and act as if you know everything, then tell me, Alisha, why didn't you stop me the first time?"
They give each other a glare as the room goes silent, Riven walks up to me.
"We need to talk," he says. "Follow me."
I walk quietly behind Riven as we head out of the room. However, Xavier suddenly calls me my name stopping me.
"Violet, take this as a warning," Xavier says seriously. "Don't get involved with Riven, you'll just regret it, just like Arianna did."
I look over at Riven but he doesn't turn around, instead, he walks out the door.
Riven...
Alisha comes up behind me and places her hand on my shoulder.
"Just hear him out Violet," Alisha says. "It's better if you hear it from him, besides I need to have a conversation with my brother."
I sigh and proceed to walk out of the room, I turn back and look at Xavier who still has that condescending smile across his face.
"You thought you can hold that over me, just so you hurt Riven with it?" I say annoyed. "You're more pathetic than I thought, what kind of brother would want to hurt their own sibling? You better take a good look in the mirror Xavier, because you'll lose your family like that."
I leave the room and slam the door shut behind me. I put my ear against the door and hear the door lock, I could faintly hear Alisha's voice.
"You might want to listen to her," she says softly. "Because I would hate to see you become like our mother."
I take a deep breath and go to find Riven.
***
I walk through the halls and walk past the balcony, I stop and take a step back to see Riven standing out there. I approach him, placing my hand on his back.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
"I honestly don't know how to answer that..." Riven sighs. "I don't know what his problem is Violet, he's just always after me."
"I haven't known either of you that long and I could tell you that," I chuckle. "But I want to explain that kiss he was talking about, Riven it was just-"
"No Violet," he says, cutting me off, Riven turns and looks at me. "I know what Xavier is capable of, but if you have feelings for him or something then it's okay."
"What? No!" I say shocked. "That's insane, the only reason it even got that far was that... because I felt like you were distancing yourself from me. It sounds really stupid but I just don't know how to explain it..."
"Violet I understand but I have to be honest with you, no matter how I feel this can't happen," he says as he puts his hands on the balcony wall and clenches his fist. "Xavier's right, I don't want to see anything happen to you, and I don't think you know what you're getting yourself into. It's one thing to work with me, but this just feels too familiar."
"I understand," I reply and place my hand on Riven's. "Besides, I don't think I'm certain what any of this is myself."
I see Riven turn his head looking at me from the corner of my eye.
"I think I was just too vulnerable and I guess in a way I found a sense of comfort with you." I turn and smile at Riven. "We haven't even known each other that long, there's no way we could have these feelings, right?"
"R- Right..." Riven says.
I take my hand away from Riven and walk back inside, he didn't have to give me any answers and I wasn't going to force that on him either. What happened with Xavier made it clear to me that I wasn't ready to be with anyone, especially someone who had been through so much already.
As I get back inside and hear Riven's footsteps rapidly follow behind, he grabs my hand and I look back at him. He looked frightened, almost as he didn't know what to say. I stand in the hall and Riven stands on the balcony, our hands in the middle and we just look at each other.
Riven let's go and takes a step back still locking eyes with me.
"Where do we go from here...?" he asks.
"I don't know."
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