Page 45 of Lovely Venom

How she looked at me that night, like I was more than a monster. She let me fuck her like she was a whore. And I let her walk away like she didn’t matter.

But she does. Shefucking does.

Shane and Rhys will be watching me. And nowtheysee what I’ve been trying not to feel.

I drop the comb into my nightstand drawer and drag a hand down my face. Everyone knows what I did. With a DEA agent.

And Shane warned me to stay the hell away from her.

Is she worth putting everything we’ve built in the last two years at risk?

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Connor

After a particularly brutal and bloody week, I brusquely push through the revolving doors of The Sterling hotel where my sister Sabine lives and works with her billionaire husband, actor Grayson Hart.

It’s the first time in days I’ve not been covered in blood and had a moment to think about something other than gruesome torture and death.

Sabine and her sisters-in-law funded an exhibit for their husbands to celebrate the hotel’s thirtieth anniversary. My entire family is here to support the passion project she’d been talking about for months.

And I’m late. As usual.

But I stop in my tracks, spottingRainain the lobby.

I’m certain this isn’t a coincidence. But if she’s been fired from the DEA, why is she still hunting me?

My throat tightens. Could she just want to fuck me again? All this cat and mouse seems like a waste of time. All she has to do is knock on my damn door.

Was it more than sex for her, too?

One thought sharpens in my mind. Despite the warning to stay away from her and the potential risk she poses to Quinlan Empire, I should deal with her directly.

And bydeal with her directly,I mean with my cock in her mouth until I get answers as to why she keeps turning up wherever I go.

Raina lingers in front of one of the many black-and-white photographs framed in glass and set up on easels that snake all over the hotel lobby. With a small purse tucked under one arm, she stares curiously at a particular image with something close to reverence.

Watching her from behind one of the many stone pillars in the lobby, I see she’s taken an interest in a photograph of a dude in a hard hat, standing with three little boys in matching safety hats amidst the rubble of construction.

With Raina focused on the photo, a man with light brown hair sidles up beside her.

“That was during the renovation,” he says, tapping the glass.

Raina turns toward him, her chin tilting up to meet his height. The guy looks to be around six-foot-four of menacing charm and tailored smugness.

“This hotel is magnificent,” she says.

“It used to be a church,” he tells her, looking like he wants to give her a personal tour of a guestroom’s king-size bed.

I know the sound of a sleazy come-on. I’m the master. Or, I used to be until this bird flew into my coop, and now she’s all I fucking think about.

But Rainasmilesat the interaction. I swear, the voices in my head go quiet. I feel like I’ve been sucker-punched in the ribs.

“That’s incredible,” she says.

Oh yeah, Venom? Is HE incredible, too?

Do youlikeridiculously tall, well-groomed men who don’t kill people for a living? I know all the mob bosses in this city. This smooth operator isn’t one of them, even if I can’t see his face.