Page 134 of Toxic Revenge: Part Two

Picking up some green paint on my fingers, I approached Talia. She dodged around me, darting to the other side of the room. Her fingers dipped into the white and she tried to flick itat me. A small blob of white paint flopped onto the white sheet in front of her instead.

“Shit, I thought that would work better,” she said.

I advanced on her again, laser-focused. This time, she’d put herself in a corner. She wouldn’t get away.

When I got close enough, I tried to flick paint at her too—with a tiny bit more success than she’d had. She ended up with a few specks of green on her shirt. She smirked like she’d won, but then I lunged forward and smeared green across her cheek.

She gasped and grabbed my shirt with her paint-covered hand, trying to push past me and out of the corner. I didn’t let her, backing her up until she was pressed against the wall.

Her breathing quickened, arousal heightening her cranberry rose scent. I leaned in to kiss her, groaning against her lips before forcing myself to pull back. Swiping a new dollop of paint from the palette, I rubbed it on the tip of her nose.

She glared half-heartedly at me, rubbing paint along my jawline and then down to my neck. Her fingers wrapped around my throat, and she gently squeezed.

My cock went rock hard in an instant, and my paint palette clattered loudly to the ground.

Shit, I’d been really trying to keep this some light-hearted fun, not about sex.

How the hell was I supposed to resist her when she was teasing me like this, though?

I pressed closer, pinning her more roughly against the wall and leaning into her hold on me. She tightened her grip, almost cutting off my air flow.

I loved this woman so fucking much. More than anything.

Not just because she was sexy as hell and knew every way to turn me on, but because of who she was. A kind, resilient person who wasn’t afraid to fight for herself and get some revenge when it was called for.

“We’re both really messy now,” she whispered, peering up at me through her lashes.

“I’ll be messy with you anytime, princess.”

She pulled me down using her grip on my throat, smashing our lips together. I groaned and deepened the kiss, the paint from her nose smearing across my cheek. Her scent swirled around me, making me stupid with lust even as it mixed with the chemical smell of the acrylic paints.

Talia dropped her palette too and ran a hand down my chest, tracing a teasing path to my aching cock. I got enough of a handle on myself to pull away with a gasp.

Nope. Gotta wait.

There was something I had to do before this devolved—as happy as I was for it to continue devolving.

Shoving a hand into the pocket of my jeans, I lifted a large square jewellery box up to show her. The paint had mostly dried on my hands, but I definitely got a few smudges on the velvet. Whatever, it was only a box.

It was the inside that counted, right?

Her breath caught and she dropped her hands from me, looking between me and the box. “Jewellery?” she asked. “But West already got me something.”

She played with the bracelet on her wrist. Hopefully we hadn’t gotten any paint on it.

“Yeah, but this one is from me,” I said.

We’d all gotten her something. Lavinia had helped us pick out the set from a high-end store’s catalogue and had it delivered here overnight.

She’d then had Emilia embed teeny tiny tracking chips in all three pieces.

As long as she was wearing her new gifts, we would always know where Talia was.

It felt disingenuous for me not to tell her about the tracking, but Mercer had given me firm orders to keep my mouth shut. He’d claimed it was better if she didn’t know—just for now. Whether I agreed or not, I’d been overruled by my packmates and Talia’s sisters.

I held out the box to her, waiting for her to open it. She flipped the top up and gasped, eyes going wide.

A glittering necklace laid on the bed of velvet, made of gold with a pendant inlaid with tiny rubies. The colour brought out her eyes.