Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
Not if you kill me first.
“I’ll go out with you, Luca. I’ll stay at least for tonight.”
I put my phone back in my bag without bothering to reply to my mom or Blakely. I don’t even check my social media. I lean further into him, and he sighs.
“Thank you, Teagan,” he says. “You’ll be happy I promise.”
The weird thing is I think maybe I am.
It’s well into the evening when we finally get to the hotel in Downtown Seattle. After we checked in, we brought our stuff upstairs and then basically ran back into the cold, rainy night. We ended up at an upscale Japanese restaurant a few blocks away.
Luca said no one would recognize him, but the server seemed flustered as soon as she set our drinks on the table. And while the meal was uneventful, I could have sworn some people were recording or taking photos as they walked by. Luca either didn’t seem to notice or was completely unfazed. It’s just as likely the former as the latter. I can see how it could become so normal that maybe he wouldn’t think it has anything to do with him.
“Excuse me.” I look over and see two girls standing in front of our table. “We didn’t want to bother you while you were eating, but aren’t you Luca De Rossi?” one of them asks.
He looks at me and smiles, and I mouth the words, ‘I told you.’
He laughs, then turns back to them.
“No,” he says. “It’s not me. See, I have a coat. That guy would look fucking ridiculous in a coat. My girlfriend would make fun of him.”
I almost spit my drink. I laugh, and they look back and forth between the two of us, trying to figure out if it’s a joke.
“I’m kidding,” he says. “It’s me.”
“Oh, I thought so,” one of them says. “Can you take a selfie with us?”
“Sure,” he says. “What are your names?”
“I’m Kelly, and this is Arya. We’ll be at the show tomorrow.”
“Awesome,” he says, standing. “Nice to meet you.” He stands in the middle of the two of them, and Arya holds her phone out in front of them.
“Do you want me to take it?” I ask.
“Oh! Sure, that would be great,” she says, handing me her phone.
I take a couple of photos and then hand it back to her.
“Thank you so much. Are you really his girlfriend?”
“Yes,” Luca says.
“Um, not really,” I tell her. “I did kind of make fun of his coat, though. On accident.”
“What do you mean not really? We’re on a date,” Luca says.
“This is our first date.”
“She’s lying; she’s just shy. She lives with me,” he tells them.
They laugh, then look to me.
I shrug. “He lives with a lot of people.”
“You’re fucking me.”
“You fuck all the people you live with.”
He scoffs. “Not all of them. I don’t fuck my brother. I’ve never fucked Eli. I don’t fuck Alana anymore, eitherI think she’s afraid of me.”
“Wow. Okay.”
“Do you really drink blood?” Kelly asks.
Shit. They’re still standing there?
“Sometimes,” he says.
The server shows up to take our plates, and I’m grateful for the interruption.
“Thank you,” he says, then waves the girls off and tells them to have a good night.
“Can I get you guys anything else? Another round of drinks?” the server asks as they go.
“Please,” he says.
She walks away, and he reaches across the table and grabs my hand. “I miss you.”
“What do you mean?” I ask. “We’ve barely been apart for the last twenty-four hours.
“Yeah, but you’re all the way over there. Come sit on my lap.”
I shake my head. “No way. Everyone is already staring at us. This isn’t a nightclub. It’ll look like I’m making a scene.”
“A scene?”
“Yeah, about being here with you.”
Luca smiles, then gets up, moves to my side of the booth, and pulls me into his lap. “Well, then I’ll make the scene.”
He brings his mouth to mine and kisses me slowly, sensually.
“We should go back to the hotel,” I tell him.
“And then what?” he asks, moving onto my neck.
“I’m not sore anymore,” I whisper. “You don’t have to be careful with me; I don’t want you to be.”
“You’re going to figure out that you shouldn’t say things like that to me in public,” Luca says. He slips his hand underneath my shirt, then sinks his teeth into my shoulder. I suck in a breath and push his head back.
“Ow Luca!”
He nuzzles back into my neck and tightens his hold on me. “I want to hurt you. I want to taste blood again. Do you want to taste mine, too? I’ll let you.”
Yes.
“I’ll be right back then we can leave.”
I kiss him, then walk to the restroom. When I finish, I wash my hands, run my fingers through my hair a few times, and reapply my lipstick.
Then, the lights go out. I freeze in the pitch-black space, waiting for them to turn back on.
“What the fuck?” I say aloud.
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.