Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“Why do you stay?” I ask.
“For the same reason you were going to before they came back for you. Everyone needs a place and purpose. I don’t know how to exist anywhere else.”
“You can exist with me. I’ll be your purpose.”
He laughs just a little. “You really are crazy, aren’t you, Teagan?”
I shrug. “Probably.”
“I can’t,” Sebastian says. “I’m not like my brothersI won’t share you. I’ll end up killing them. And quite frankly, I don’t trust myself not to eventually kill you, too.”
“Yeah, you do,” I say.
He ignores me and turns in the other direction, removing the needle from the end of the tube.
“Why won’t you look at me?” I ask him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says. “I’m busy. I’ll look at you later.”
“Right okay.”
I linger for a momentwaiting, but I’m not sure what I’m waiting forand when he still doesn’t look at me or say anything, I retreat to the bathroom.
I rinse off quickly in the shower, and then brush my teeth. Sebastian still doesn’t look at me when I walk out to dress. I put on shorts and a tank top, slip on my sandals, and grab the garment bag with my dress and shoes in it.
I check my phone and see that I have a text message from Blakely.
BLAKELY I still hate the bows. Will you cut them off?
ME Yep. Consider it done.
“I guess I’ll go ahead and go,” I tell him. “I need to do something for Blake, and I want to eat and get some coffee downstairs before I go up there.”
“Okay,” he says, again, without looking up. “Might as well go crazy, charge whatever you want to the roomyou won’t be around to pay the bill.”
“Are you hungry? Will you come with me?”
“I’ll grab something later,” he says.
He walks out to the balcony, closes the sliding glass door behind him, and sits in a chair facing the sea. I set the garment bag down on the bed and follow him.
“Sebastian?” My voice cracks.
“What?”
“You’re hurting my feelings.”
Sighing, he turns andfinallylooks at me. “You’re asking for too much from me, Teagan. You already broke medon’t make this harder than it already is.”
“That’s not what I’m trying to do. I love you.”
“You need to stop saying that,” he says.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t fucking like it!” he snaps.
“Well, why the fuck not?!” I shout, tears stinging my eyes. “What you’re doing for me that’s love. You love me, too. And after today, we’re never going to see each other again, and you’ll miss me forever. And you’re going to wish that you’d told me and that you’d kissed me and touched me. You’re going to move from one big, lifeless house that isn’t a home to another, and you’ll sit in the dark alone and think about all of the times you made me feel like this, and you’re going to hate it.”
He turns his gaze back to the water and folds his arms across his chest. “I don’t feel and think about things the way you do, Teagan.”
“No, you don’t. Not at all. But I know how you think and feel about me.”
“I’m sure that makes you feel better, but you’re wrong. You’re running out of time, little monster. You better go. Try not to get fucking wasted; it’s going to be harder to get you out of here if you’re causing a scene or hacking someone to pieces.”
I scoff and stare at him in disbelief. “See you later, Bone Saw.”
I storm back inside, grab the garment bag and my purse, and leave, letting the door slam behind me.
It’s not his fault, I tell myself as I move from my building on the far end of the resort back to the main building where Blake is staying. He didn’t do this to himself, and maybe he’s rightmaybe I am asking too much. Don’t let him make you make it worse. That’s probably what he wants.
I walk around the back to the spot on the beach they’ve set up for the wedding, take out my phone, and wipe my eyes before sending Blakely a text.
ME Last chance to change your mind on the bows.
BLAKELY Do it.
When I finish, I snap a photo and send it to her.
ME Feel better or worse?
BLAKELY Better. It’s much better.
I stop at a café downstairs, grab a sandwich and a coffee, and then head up to Blakely’s room to get my hair, makeup, and nails done. Even though I’m a few minutes early, it looks like I’m the last one in the room. My mom, her future mother-in-law, and the bridal party are already there.
“You couldn’t have put on a t-shirt for your sister?” my mom asks as the artist does her makeup, referringagainto the scars on my chest.
“I wouldn’t be able to get a t-shirt off without ruining my hair and makeup,” I say. Remembering this is the last day I’ll ever spend with them, I add, “Yours looks nice, by the way.”
“She looks fine, Mom,” Blakely says. “Teagan, you’re after Sophie for hair.”
“Okay,” I say, sitting on the couch.
“Do you want some champagne?” Blakely asks, handing me a glass. I think about Sebastian’s shitty comment and take it anyway.
“Thanks, but I feel like you shouldn’t be serving me things today.”
She shrugs. “I can’t sit still. Are you okay? You look like you’ve been crying.”
Sebastian’s supposed to murder me later, right? I guess it won’t hurt to tell the truth.
“Sebastian and I were fighting,” I tell her. “He’s here, by the way is he still invited?”
“Yeah, of course. We have plenty of room. What were you fighting about?”
“Moving.”
“Well, if you love him, maybe you should stay,” Blakely says.
“Since when do you want me around?”
“Is he going to take care of you if you stay?” my mom asks, apparently overhearing the conversation.
“No,” I tell her. “He can’t.”
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.