Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“But when she killed herself, you were happy.”
“Both things can be true. They aren’t necessarily related. I’m not glad she’s gone; I think about her all the time.”
“I’m tired,” I tell him. “I’m going to go to sleep. Um, can I sleep here? With you?”
“Of course, you can,” he says. He kisses me on the lips before I turn my back to him and pull the covers up to my neck.
He sighs and goes back to reading, resting his free hand on my hip. I close my eyes, but I don’t fall asleep until his light clicks off, and I feel his breath on the back of my neck.
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“Teagan? Teagan, wake up, baby,” a voice whispers.
I feel a hand on my cheek, and when I open my eyes, I see Luca beside me on the bed.
“Luca?” I wrap my entire body around him. “I missed you.”
“I’m sorry if I scared you,” he whispers.
“I wasn’t scared,” I tell him. “I was just worried about you. What happened?”
Behind me, Declan stirs. “Teagan? Luca, what are you”
“Relax,” Luca says. “I’m fine.”
“Luca isn’t going to hurt me,” I tell him. I close my eyes, bury my head in his chest, and breathe him in. “He loves me.”
“Yeah, I do love you, baby,” he says. “You’re right.”
Declan sighs. “Okay,” he says.
He kisses the back of my head and goes back to sleep.
Inever did find out what upset Luca so much. Whatever it was, Declan must have taken care of it like they said, and no one has brought it up since. But the show here in Reno was outstandingthe biggest crowd I’ve been a part of yet. And aside from Declan being on the phone more than usual, everything seems to be back to normal.
Or whatever my new normal is, at least.
Is it normal for a man like Declana killerto look at a girl like me the way he is right now while his brother’s hand is inside my skirt?
He smiles. “Let’s go out.”
“You mean him?” I ask, pointing to Luca.
“No,” Declan says. “I’m talking to you, too. We don’t have to leave tomorrow, and I don’t want to go back to the hotel. There’s a club around the corner; they’ve got a celebrity DJ tonight. It’ll be loud and dark. We can blend in. What do you think?” He brushes my hair away from my face. “You look really pretty tonight.”
“Why are you in such a good mood?” I ask.
“It was a great fucking show,” he says. “Why do you still hate it when I’m nice to you?”
“I don’t ” I lie.
“I’m down,” Luca says, picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder. He turns his head, flips my skirt up, and bites me on the ass.
“Ouch!” I squeal. “That hurts.”
“That’s a beautiful fucking sight,” Declan says. My face flushes. “Come on. There’s a car out back.”
“You want me to tell the others?” Luca asks.
“No,” Declan says. “I don’t.”
The three of us all get in the back of the car, and Declan gives the driver the name of the club.
“And wait for us,” he says, handing the man a few hundred-dollar bills.
“No problem,” the driver says.
When we get there, he pulls around back, and we’re let in through the side door. Declan wears sunglasses in the dark space, and Luca pulls his hair back and covers it with a cap. I look his muscled, tattooed body up and down in his white v-neck top and jeans.
“What are you looking at?” Luca taunts with a hand on my ass as we follow Declan to the bar.
“A whole fucking snack,” I tell him, and he laughs.
They both are. Both tall, muscled rockstar gods. Both dangerous, moving through the room as if they’re just like anyone else here, brushing shoulders with men and women completely unaware of who and what they are.
Or what they’re capable of.
The two of them lean against the bar, talking and waiting. I lean into Luca’s back, slipping my hands under his shirt and wrapping my arms around him. I run my fingers up and down his abs, looking up when I feel Declan’s eyes on me.
“What?” I ask.
He smiles a little. “Nothing,” he says.
“This is taking too long,” Luca says. He shoves me toward Declan. “Hold this for me.”
Declan throws his arm over my shoulders and pulls me into his side, and Luca jumps over the counter the same way he did the night we met.
“Hey! You can’t be back here!” the bartender yells.
“Oh my god! That’s Luca De Rossi!” a girl shouts from her barstool.
“What’s up, guys?!” Luca says.
He opens his wallet, hands a wad of one-hundred-dollar bills to the bartender, and then starts passing out bottles of liquor and beer to the people at the bar as they cheer.
“So much for lowkey,” Declan says, laughing. “He’s a fucking animal.”
I look up at him and laugh. “Might as well take your sunglasses off now, Elton John.”
He shakes his head, but takes them off anyway, stuffing them into his back pocket.
“Luca!” someone yells. “Can we take a selfie?”
“Hold on,” he tells her, mixing a drink. He adds a cherry on top before he brings it over to me. “This for you, my angel.”
He kisses me on the lips and sets the drink in front of me.
“What is it?” I ask.
“I don’t knowI’m not a fucking bartender,” he says. I laugh, and he adds, “It’s mostly vodka. It probably tastes like shit.”
“Thank you,” I tell him.
“You’re welcome, baby,” he says. “I’ll be right back.”
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.