Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
And when he pulls out, I reach for him, lacing my fingers through his and pulling him into me. This is usually the part where he leaves me without saying a word or tells me how much he hates me.
“Be nice to me,” I whisper, breathless. “I love you.”
He wraps his arms around me, and I close my eyes as he trails kisses down my neck.
Afterward, he leaves the bed and pours alcohol on his own chest, but he doesn’t react to the stinging sensation the way I did. I shower first, and then Sebastian, who simply said, “No,” when I asked him to get in with me, but that’s okay.
I bet he’s never showered with anyone in his life. I’m sure no one has ever laid back against his chest in the bathtub, and no one has ever washed his hair for himnot for longer than he could remember.
But then he crawls back into bed with me, and he doesn’t object when I curl up against his scarred back. I close my eyes and get this really ridiculous idea that not only will Declan and Luca come back for me, but maybe Sebastian could come, too. I could fix him while Luca fixed me, and do things for him that no one ever did, like buy him birthday cards or scratch the back of his head during a movie. Declan always liked that.
I move the hand from behind my head to the back of his neck and then thread my fingers through his hair, scratching his scalp with my nails.
“Mmm, you better stop, Teagan,” Sebastian says, his eyes still closed. “I can’t get used to things like that.”
“I won’t tell if you won’t.” I press my lips against the damaged skin, kissing the old wounds that he says don’t hurt anymore, but they changed him from a scared little boy to a ruthless killer. “Hey, Sebastian?”
“Yeah?”
“When’s your birthday?”
He sighs. “I don’t know anymore, Teagan. I think it was in January or February. There was always snow on the ground.”
My eyes start to water again, and I squeeze them shut, wrapping my arms around his body. “I think you’re beautiful, too.”
“Just go to sleep,” he says. “You can say more crazy shit to me tomorrow.”
Iwake up the next morning naked and alone in bed. I stretch out onto my back, pull the bloody sheet up to my chest, and sit up.
Sebastian is fully dressed, sprawled out on the sofa looking down at his laptop.
“Hey, come back to bed,” I say.
But he doesn’t reply or even look up, furiously tapping away at the keys in front of him.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you that Blakely said you could come to the wedding. Do you want to? You don’t have to dance.”
Still, he doesn’t answer.
“Fuck, I have to be downstairs in half an hour. Maybe we could stay a little bit longer. I’ll even go to that club with you if”
“Teagan, let me ask you something,” he says, his tone calm and even.
Too calm, too even. Like Bone Saw.
“Yeah?”
“Have you always been a lying fucking whore?”
“Iwhat? Why would you say that to me?”
“Where were you the night before last, Teagan?”
“I already told you,” I say weakly. “I was here at the hotel.”
He turns his laptop toward me and drops it haphazardly on the table beside him. “Then what the fuck is this Teagan?”
I climb out of bed, pull on a t-shirt, and approach the screen, my hands shaking with adrenaline. I expect to see Declan or Luca, but I see nothing.
“I don’t understand,” I tell him. “What am I looking at? It’s just an empty hallway.”
“Exactly,” he says. “That’s your hallway, Teagan. I’ve watched the entire footage from the time you last texted me until you open the door for your sister the next morning, and there’s nothing there. The video has been replaced with a loop. So, do you want to try again? Who were you with the other night, and how did you get back into the room, Teagan?”
“I don’t know ” I blink, sending tears rolling down my cheeks.
He grabs me by the hair and pulls me toward him, screaming, “Stop. Fucking. Lying.”
“Sebastian, please stop,” I cry. “I don’t know what’s real and what’s not!”
“Well, tell me how you think you got back in the room,” he says, his voice calm again.
“I think that ”
“Teagan, you have about five seconds before ”
“I’m trying, okay? I think that I followed what I thought was another hallucination out of the club and then onto the roof. I was going to jump, but he pulled me back.”
“Who?”
“Declan. Declan did.”
“And then what?”
“And then he he gave me a water bottle, but I think it was roofied. He told me he was sorry and that he loved me and I was safe, and then I think he brought me back because I woke up here, sick.”
He slams the laptop shut and stuffs it back into his bag.
“Sebastian what are you doing? Where are you going? Are you mad at me?”
“Am I mad at you?” he scoffs. “Teagan, I’ve never been this fucking angry in my life, and that in itself is a big fucking problem.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You should have called me the moment you fucking saw him. He was explicitly instructed not to come back.”
He was told not to come back. That’s why I’ve been alone, and he knew it. The realization hits me like a punch to the gut.
“So, you lied to me. They did want me. It’s a punishment like he said.”
“Yeah, well, now you’re a trap. Let’s see how you sleep at night. It won’t be with me because I’m fucking compromised. But someone will be watching you, Teaganyour every fucking move from the second you leave the hotel. They’re already in position.”
He turns for the door, and I grab him by the arm. “Sebastian, please don’t go!” I cry.
He pushes me off hard enough that I fall flat on my ass on the ground. “You have no idea how close I am to snapping your fucking neck. I’m hanging on by a fucking thread, Teagan.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” I repeat weakly.
“You said you loved me!” he shouts. “You’re a liar. You’re sick, Teagan. It might be months, it might be years, but they’re going to take you out, and good fucking riddance.”
“But I do love you,” I tell him. I crawl to his feet and wrap my body around his leg like a fucking child. “You don’t mean it. Please, Sebastian! Please, don’t leave me; everyone always fucking leaves me.”
“Well, I wonder why. Get off me, Teagan,” he says, shaking me off again. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
“But where are you going? Are you going to be in trouble?”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.