Page 8 of Provocation (Den of Deception #3)

I put my phone down and get up, flopping down onto my bed and trying to figure out what has my mind all riled up as I close my eyes.

My phone alarm wakes me at five and I crawl out of bed, grabbing a quick shower and then turning on the bath.

I get dressed and see a message from Blake detailing all he’s found on Joe Banderville so far.

It’s clear that, as we thought, this guy is a nasty fuck and it turns my stomach to know that Daisy will be anywhere near him, that we’ll have to tell her just how bad he is.

I try to put it out of my mind for now as I plod downstairs.

The kitchen is deserted, which isn’t unusual for this time in the morning.

I make a pot of coffee and boil some water in the pan on the stove for Daisy’s tea.

Taking both mugs upstairs, I check the tub and turn off the water.

I sneak into Daisy’s room and set her cup on the nightstand.

She’s still asleep with Mav curled around her.

Her head is resting on his chest. I stare for a minute longer than is customary, mostly because I figured she’d be on one side of the bed and he’d be on the other.

I want this with her. I haven’t even had a turn!

My eyes narrow and I decide that Blake can fuck himself. Daisy is sleeping with me in my bed tonight. She’s going to be wrapped around me for a change.

I touch her shoulder, noticing it’s bare. Is she naked?

She groans a little, stretching. Her hands run across Mav’s chest, and she makes that same little hum that she did when she was eating pizza last night.

‘Daisy?’ I whisper, shaking her gently.

‘Hmm?’ she asks.

‘We need to go to the lab, remember?’

She mutters something unintelligible.

‘To make Envy?’

Her eyes open and she sits up. ‘The lab. Let’s go.’

She gets out of bed, and I swallow hard. She is naked. My eyes roam over her. I don’t even mean for them to, but I can’t help it.

‘I drew you a bath and there’s a cup of tea on your nightstand, okay?’

She gives me a sleepy grin and yawns, stretching high. I think she’s still half asleep because she hasn’t grabbed my robe, the one she thinks I haven’t noticed her stealing all the time.

She blinks at me and then frowns. ‘Oh! The lab. Yes.’

She picks up my robe and puts it on, leaving the room in a swish. I hear the bathroom door close, and I stare after her for a minute.

How did I go a decade without seeing her, speaking to her? How didn’t I realize how much I missed her, how hollow my life was without her?

‘You’re looking like you just got hit by cupid’s arrow,’ Mav mutters from the bed and I immediately scowl at him.

‘Are you coming to the club with us?’

I hear him yawn. ‘Yeah. What time is it?’

‘Five fifteen.’

‘When you leaving?’

‘When Daisy’s ready.’

I see a thumbs up from the covers and go back to my room as I hear Mav get up and pad across the hall into his own room.

I drink my coffee while I sort out some notes for Applegate.

He wants to meet with me this week for an update on the non-opiate, and he’ll want to know what’s going on with Envy, too.

We’ve kept him out of the loop, mostly at his insistence because he was adamant that he wanted plausible deniability as well as his cut for letting us use the lab like it was ours for the past eighteen months.

I still have no idea how he was able to swing it so that a group of undergrads were given free reign over the shiny, new lab, but I think he probably used me and the Novelle name as the excuse.

I can imagine him telling a room of stuffy assholes that I wanted first dibs on the lab and my daddy would throw a fit if his son didn’t get what he wanted. I snort. Yeah, he definitely did that.

I hear the bathroom door, and Daisy comes down the hall.

I’m about to go ask her how she’s feeling and if I can take a look at her injuries, but Blake, that fucker, gets to her first. I didn’t even know he was awake!

He doesn’t even ask, he just pulls her towel away and she squeals, looking outraged as he turns her around and inspects her ass.

He whispers something in her ear, and she shakes her head, though as I step closer, I see that she’s blushing.

‘Need to get to the lab,’ she says. ‘Let go.’

Blake puts his hands up and steps back, pretending he’s his usual carefree self, but I see how his eyes home in on those marks and I think that, regardless of what he said last night, Joe Banderville should watch his back.

‘They look a little better,’ I murmur.

He nods. ‘Arnica. Works wonders.’

He turns to go back to his room, but I stop him with a hand on his shoulder, barring his way.

He hides the darkness from me, but I know him too well.

‘There’s nothing we can do,’ I say quietly, conscious that Daisy’s door is open. ‘Not yet. You know what they say about revenge.’

He stares at me for a second and I think he’s going to lose his temper, but instead he glances at Daisy’s room and a wisp of a grin curls his lips.

‘I like a cold dish. I won’t do anything. Not until she tells me I can. She already made me promise.’

I’m thrown for a second. ‘She did?’

He nods and I notice something I’ve rarely seen in my friend’s eyes when it comes to women, at least the ones our age.

Respect.

‘It means something to her,’ I say. ‘A promise. You can’t break it.’

‘Wasn’t planning on it,’ he smirks. ‘Besides, I think she has it in hand.’

Before I can ask him what he means, he’s in his room and the door is closing.

It’s ten minutes before Daisy emerges. Mav appears in the corridor around the same time and Blake a few seconds later.

‘Guess we’re taking the truck.’

We go downstairs together. It’s still dark out and the breeze feels like ice on our cheeks as we leave the house and climb into the 4x4.

Mav drives and I make Blake sit up next to him with Daisy and me in the back, mostly because he’s in a weird mood and I half expect him to try to fuck Daisy in the back seat if he’s the one sitting next to her.

I glance at her as she puts on her seatbelt, and I lean toward her. ‘Blake,’ I murmur and she looks at me with a questioning expression. ‘He’s…he hasn’t done anything that you haven’t wanted him to, has he?’

‘I don’t think so,’ she murmurs, turning her body toward me. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean stuff like this morning when he pulled your towel off in front of everyone.’

‘Oh, that.’ She rolls her eyes. ‘He’s just a bit heavy-handed.’

She turns to look out the window, clearly done talking.

‘So, uh. You’re okay with that stuff? He can be obsessive. You don’t mind? It doesn’t scare you?’

She looks back at me and I get the distinct impression she thinks I’m talking crazy.

‘He only pulled my towel off in front of you and Mav. You’ve already seen me naked. No big deal. I don’t think he’d do it in front of anyone else.’ She huffs. ‘Yesterday, my husband-to-be whipped me with a cane. That sort of put Blake in perspective for me. So, no, I’m not scared of him, Jack.’

She gives me a shrug. ‘And, after ten years with no one caring much about me at all, and all those weeks where everyone was so horrible to me here, I think I sort of like the obsessiveness to be honest. It’s…nice. A breath of fresh air.’

Unable to help myself, I lean closer, and I ask the question Blake wouldn’t answer last night. ‘What did he do after he put the arnica on you, Daisy?’

I see Mav turn his head to listen to her reply in my periphery. Blake is doing the same.

‘He used a suction vibe on my clit and a glass dildo in my pussy. It was very nice.’ Her eyes flick to Blake and her lips twitch. ‘Almost as good as pizza.’

Blake’s laugh is sudden and loud, and he turns back to look at Daisy. ‘Our girl is more of a slut for pepperoni than she is for pleasure.’

Daisy giggles. ‘I’m afraid pizza may always trump sex for me.’

He snorts. ‘We’ll see, gorgeous.’

I realize my mouth is hanging open and I close it, catching Mav’s raised eyebrows in the rearview mirror as he meets my eyes for a second.

Blake is fucking smitten. There’s no other word for it. I’m pretty sure that, like me, he’d do anything for this girl. She might just hold all three of our hearts in her palm, and I doubt she has any idea.

I pull out my phone and message the group.

Tonight, I think some punishment is in order for her little stunt with Envy behind our backs ?

Blake glances back at me. ‘Definitely. What did you have in mind?’

My phone buzzes. It’s from Blake.

No spankings

Daisy glances over at us in curiosity, but as usual when she isn’t sure what’s going on, she ignores us.

No. Maybe a little edging

Shit. She’s gonna hate that. She’ll be sobbing and begging to come in less than ten minutes guaranteed

I glance over at our oblivious girl and give the back of her head a dark smile, already anticipating her writhing body, begging us for pleasure and being denied. She’ll think twice before keeping stuff from us after we’re done with her, I’m pretty sure.

We turn down the final street before we get to our club, Wrath, and I put all thoughts of a very naked, begging Daisy out of my head.

The streets are crowded with people looking a little worse for wear, and like they danced the night away.

I realize that Dom probably only just kicked everyone out and closed up.

‘Stay close,’ I tell Daisy as we pull up in the alleyway and Mav opens the back door for her to climb out.

‘Where are we?’ she asks.

‘Our club.’

She frowns. ‘But you said we were going to your lab. We shouldn’t waste any more time.’

I put a finger to her lips. ‘Good things come to those who wait.’

She huffs but puts her hands up and shrugs.