Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“You better stop,” Luca says. “We’re supposed to leave in forty minutes, and if you don’t, one or both of you are going to get fucked again.”
“Forty minutes, really? Shit,” River says. “I’d better go. If I leave this stuff here, can you change her bandage, or do you want me to do it?”
“I can do it,” he tells her.
I almost argue for her to do it instead. I don’t know why I don’t want him to see it; it’s not like I can keep him from seeing it forever.
“Okay,” she says. She wipes her chest clean with the hotel sheets and grabs her pajamas from the floor. “I’m going to go shower. See you downstairs.”
She doesn’t bother dressing before she steps out into the hallway.
“We should go shower, too,” Luca says. “Come on.”
He climbs out of bed, and I hesitate for a few seconds before following. The water is already steaming when I step inside the bathroom, closing the door behind me.
“I haven’t looked at it,” I tell him.
He sighs and peels back the bandage. I see a flash of shock on his face before he says, “It’s not that bad. I mean, the ‘L’ is a work of art but you should look at it. This is the worst it’s ever going to look.”
He turns me toward the mirror, and I take a deep breath before allowing myself to look up at my reflection.
It’s about what I expected: deeper, angrier cuts than the lines that make up the ‘L’ on the other side. The straight line isn’t so bad. The curved part of the ‘D’ is deep, and the line is a little jagged. The skin kind of turns up near the middle where it’s held together with butterfly closures.
But it isn’t terrible. I don’t hate it as much as I thought it would, and I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worse. I quickly turn away from the mirror.
“See? It’s not so bad.”
“Yeah. I guess it’s not. You’re right. I’m glad I got it over with. But do you hate it?”
“No, I don’t hate it, Teagan,” he says. “I love you, and I love my brother. Okay?”
I nod, exhaling slowly in an attempt to pull myself together, and then step into the shower. I close my eyes and stand under the spray, letting it wash over me.
Luca steps into the shower behind me and kisses the top of my head. “Do you want me to wash your hair?” he asks.
“Yes,” I tell him.
As fingers run through my dark hair, I watch the water swirling down the drain turn the lightest shade of pink from the blood that had soaked into it yesterday.
And it’s not so bad.
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“Are you still feeling okay, baby?” Luca asks as we pass through the hotel lobby.
“Yeah,” I tell him. “I’m just tired. I’m not looking forward to another long bus ride, either.”
“Well, we’re almost done,” he says. “Then, we’ll take that vacation, wifey. And it’s supposed to be eighty degrees in Dallas. I know you hate the coldwe can sit by the pool tomorrow and drink all day.”
“Okay.”
“Hey,” Rhett says as we step onto the bus. “Missed you at the gym this morning.”
“Had to take care of a couple of brats,” Luca says. He smacks River’s ass as he walks past to the kitchen.
“Ow!” she says.
“It wasn’t even hard,” he says, grabbing a beer from the fridge. “Tell her, Teag.”
I lean against the bar beside her. “It really wasn’t that hard,” I say.
“Traitor,” River says. She hooks her finger in the belt loop of my jeans and then leans in and kisses me lightly on the lips.
Luca inclines his beer in our direction. “See what I mean?” he says. “Control your wife, Haze.”
“Why would I do that?” she asks. “If I’d known, I would have brought toys.”
“What kind of toys?” I ask before I can think better of it.
“Oh, we have an extensive collection,” Hazel says. “I would love to show you.”
Well, okay.
“Stop it,” Luca says. “What do you want to drink, Teagan?”
“What is there?” I ask.
“Beer, water, vodka, White Claw”
“I want one of those,” River says.
“Of course you do.” Luca takes one from the fridge and sets it in front of her. “That’s pretty much it, other than blood bags.”
I realize as soon as he says it what I wantI want the blood. I’m not going to tell him that, though.
“Water is fine.”
“She wants the blood,” Rhett says. “Did you see her face?”
“Do you?” Luca asks.
“Um ”
And now, when I hear the word blood, I crave it. I lick my lips and try not to think about it.
But I do think about it. A set of scenes flashes through my mind: first, Declan kneeling in a pool of my blood, licking it from a knife, then that girl at the house in Oregon dead on that marble slab.
Then, the couple Jared killed at the cabin, soaked in blood on the kitchen floor.
I don’t really mind any of it.
“Pour her a shot,” River says. “It’s good for you; it’ll wake you up.”
“It’s better straight from the source,” Hazel says, pulling her knife from her bag. “Give me your wrist, Riv.”
River extends her arm, and Hazel drags the blade lightly across her wrist. I watch as the blood pools and begins dripping down her arm. My mouth waters.
“Well, don’t waste it,” Hazel says.
I hesitate for only a moment more before I take River’s wrist and bring it to my mouth, sucking blood from the cut, clenching my thighs together as wet heat pools between my legs again and River lovingly runs her fingers through my hair.
There’s a knock before the bus doors open one more time, and Declan and Eli step on. I release her arm and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.
“About fucking time,” Luca says.
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.