Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“Small security breach. Just escorting her out,” he says. “Sorry for the commotion.”
Declan grabs the man by the collar of his shirt. “Get your fucking hands off of her before I slit your throat and watch you bleed out like the pig you are,” he says through clenched teeth. “She’s my fucking family. Don’t touch her, don’t even fucking look at her.”
Free of his grip, I back myself into the wall and stay there frozen while Declan looks down at the shorter man like he’s going to rip him to shreds.
The rage-filled look in his eyes looks good on him when it isn’t directed toward me.
“I-I’m sorry, man,” the guy says. “I didn’t realize you knew her.”
“Why are you still standing here!?” he yells. “I’m about to slice you open just for fun nowget the fuck out of my face!”
I look at the security guard and smirk, flipping him my middle finger before he scurries away.
“Are you okay?” Declan asks. He closes the space between us and runs his hand over my armthe one the security guard had in his grip.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Good.”
He reaches for me and tips my chin up with his thumb. “Hold still,” he says. “Close your eyes.”
“Um, okay ”
I close them and hold my breath while his finger brushes against my cheek, just under my left eye.
“Open,” he says.
“What are you”
“It was an eyelash,” Declan says. It sits on his finger, and he brings it to my lips. “Make a wish.”
I look up at him and blow.
“Hope it was a good one,” he says.
“Yeah, we’ll see.”
“Come on, I’ll walk you back.”
“Yeah okay. Thanks.”
He’s getting under my skin. Just like Alana said.
“I have a surprise for you,” Declan says as we walk. He reaches for my hand, and, without thinking, I jerk it away, pretending I need to adjust the flannel tied around my waist.
“You don’t need to be afraid of me, Teagan. I won’t hurt you.”
“You hurt me the other day.”
“I punished you the other day because you needed it. And you liked it. Are we really going to pretend it didn’t make your pussy so wet you had to run and jump on my brother’s dick to deal with it?”
“I I don’t”
“Hey, Teag.”
When I look up and see Luca, I breathe an audible sigh of relief. I know Declan hears it, and he doesn’t look happy.
“Hey.”
When I get to him, he leans down and kisses me, then pulls me into his chest. I wrap my arms around the shirtless rockstar version of him and close my eyes, breathing him in.
He’s under my skin, too.
“What’s going on?” Luca asks.
“Nothing,” I tell him. “Some security guard told me that he was going to throw me out if I didn’t show him my tits and suck his dick. Declan took care of it.”
“He said what now?” Declan asks. “You didn’t fucking tell me that.”
I shrug. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“We have to go,” Eli says as he and Rhett breeze past us.
“All right. Second door, Teagan,” Declan says, pointing behind him.
“I’ll see you after the show,” Luca says.
I stand on my toes and kiss him again, then head through that second door. I almost resist looking over my shoulder when I feel Declan’s eyes on me.
Almost.
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There’s another one of those private parties like the one in Los Angeles after the concert. I’ve been at the bar for fifteen minutes already by the time the band enters. And when they do, it’s like a vacuum sucking all the energy out of the room. Declan leads the group through the club, greeting fans, taking photos. I catch his eye, and he shoots me an enigmatic glare, but I don’t look away. Just like when he was on stage tonight, I can’t stop watching him. I’ve seen the show live three times now, but he was different tonight.
He was different in the hallway earlier, too.
But when he passes me now, almost close enough to brush shoulders, he doesn’t say a word.
“Teagan!” Luca shouts, gesturing for me to follow him.
I slide into a booth between River and Luca and watch Declan watch me, leaning against the bar on the other side of the room.
“Are you okay?” River asks.
“Yeah,” I tell her. “I think maybe I’m just a little too sober for this.”
“Well, we can fix that,” she says.
Luca grabs a bottle of vodka from the center of the table. “Open up like a good girl, Teagan,” he says.
I smile, thinking of the first time we met, and do what he says, tipping my head back and closing my lips around the bottle. He tilts it into my mouth and doesn’t stop pouring; I swallow three times before I have to break away, and vodka runs down my chin and chest.
“Fuck,” I cough.
“You’ll be okay,” he says. “You’re sturdy, right?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
As I wipe my mouth with my hand, my eyes find the bar again. I watch girls take pictures of themselves with test tubes full of blood or spill them down the front of their shirts and lick it off of each other.
“Why do you guys do this?” I ask.
“Do what?” Luca asks.
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.