Page 23 of Upon Blooded Lips (Vengeance #1)

TESSA

M y heart synchronizes with the thumping beat of the music, the sensual notes slithering through my body and pooling in my core. The flash of neon-blue and pink lights alight on the myriad of masked faces surrounding me, making me feel like I’m inside some twisted fairy tale.

I twist and turn, my hips moving in a parody of sex, my breasts brushing against Nate’s chest. My cheeks flush, and I stumble back, running into Eric, who grins down at me.

A dizzying wave of need slams into me, erasing the earlier panic in the garage.

Erotic images fill my mind, ones filled with writhing bodies and tangled limbs.

My throat goes dry, my nipples pebbling, yearning for one of them to touch me. Taste me. Hunt me. Take me.

I swallow hard as Nate’s heated gaze burns into me, filled with promises of all the things the two of them could do to me if I gave the word. There’s no escape. We’ll never let you go.

A part of me doesn’t care. It’s not a threat but a promise. A vow. I would be theirs. They would be mine.

Forever.

All I have to do is agree.

“No more. My feet are killing me.”

Eric tuts. “Poor baby.” He turns around and bends down. “Hop on.”

“You can’t be serious.” I glance around at the busy sidewalk along the Miracle Mile and worry my lip.

Nate grabs the bags I’m holding with one hand and lifts me with the other, placing me on Eric’s back. I scramble to wrap my legs around his waist before he pushes himself to his feet. A few passersby give me the side-eye but carry on without a second glance.

I should know by now not to argue with either of them. When they make their mind up about something, it would take an act of God to get them to change it. They’re both as stubborn as each other. So far, I’ve gone along with it, but they don’t know I can play that game too.

As we continue to walk, I try not to gape at everything I see. I feel like the poor little country mouse come to see the big city. It’s the first time I’ve been outside Willowmen, and while it’s not some little village, it’s nothing like Chicago.

I tighten my hold around Eric’s neck, trying to stop myself from welling up again. It angers me when I think about how na?ve I am, how little experience my parents allowed me, and how little I know about the world.

But Eric and Nate seem determined to remedy that by cramming years’ worth of experiences into a five-day trip.

Since the minute we arrived in Chicago, it’s been a nonstop flurry of activity.

We’ve gone on a luxury dinner cruise on the Chicago River, shopping on the Miracle Mile, and to a baseball game at Wrigley Field.

I gawked at the dinosaur fossils at the Field Museum, encountered sea otters at the Shedd Aquarium, and visited the Skydeck in Willis Tower.

As much fun as I’ve had, there’s an undercurrent beneath, a ticking clock that reminds me I can’t put off what needs to be done forever. I can’t move on with my life until I’ve put the past to rest.

And by rest, I mean six feet under. Presley. Robert. David. Grange. Kendrick. Each of them stole a piece of my soul, and I’m going to rip them back from their cold dead hands so I can once again be whole. Only then will the shackles fall away and allow me to be free.

I wanted to make Stephen suffer.

Finding out Eric and Nate killed Stephen left me with mixed feelings.

I’m not sorry he’s dead, but I wish I could have been there to see the light leave his eyes.

That fucker deserved far worse than the easy death he got, but I understand their reasoning.

They had to get me out of there, and they could only do that with Stephen out of the way.

Doesn’t change the fact I wanted to decorate the walls with his blood, though.

We come to a stop outside one of the many skyscrapers littering downtown. Eric sets me down, and I sway on my feet, pain lancing up my legs. “Where are we going now?” I whine, fully aware I sound like an irritable toddler.

“We’re taking you to meet someone,” Nate replies, tossing a grin at me. “Then back to the hotel for a nap for Little Miss Grumpy. We have one last surprise for you tonight before we go home tomorrow.”

“Who?” I ask, ignoring the tightening in my chest over the word home .

“You’ll like her,” Eric says, leading me across the foyer and into a waiting elevator.

He presses the button for the twentieth floor before continuing.

“She’s, well, a bit of an enigma. No one knows much about her, but she has the most twisted and depraved mind of anyone I’ve met.

She’s a master strategist, an extraordinary assassin, and has contacts that would make the government weep with envy. ”

“Why do you want me to meet her?”

The corner of Nate’s mouth lifts. “You want revenge, right? Well, The Duke is the best.”

I gasp and touch my hand to my throat. “Wait. Are you admitting you’re not the best at something?” I quickly retreat when he narrows his eyes, my back hitting the elevator wall.

Nate places both hands on the mirrored glass and leans over, caging me in. His nostrils flare when I wet my lips. “Oh, little one, keep on sassing me. I dare you.”

“Yeah?” I whisper. “Whatcha gonna do, big guy?”

Nate brushes his nose against mine before moving to my ear and murmuring, “Your ass will look so pretty decorated in my handprints. I’ll make sure you can’t sit for a week.”

My body sways toward him before I can prevent it. “Promise?”

“Jesus fucking Christ.” Eric turns away, adjusting himself.

“Oh, that’s more than a promise. It’s a fact,” Nate says, leaning back. The loss of his heat leaves me chilled, even though my body burns to be touched. “But we won’t touch you until you give the word, so you’re safe. For now.”

The doors open into a hallway, and we step out, Eric and Nate sticking close to my sides. Why did Nate have to get me all hot and bothered right before a meeting? The two of them are blasting through my defenses, removing the brick fortress surrounding my heart piece by piece.

Give in already.

I give an internal sigh, and Mirror Girl cackles back at me.

It won’t be long. The tension has been building all week, and I’m hanging on by a precarious thread.

The only thing stopping me is fear. Fear of the act itself, after my past. Fear of giving myself to them, in case it doesn’t work out. Fear of abandonment or betrayal.

It’s all I’ve ever known. If my own parents couldn’t love me, how could they? I grit my teeth and force the feelings away. Presley may have waged a campaign to shred my self-esteem into nothing, but if I give into it, she wins. And I cannot allow that.

Nate and Eric stop in front of a set of glass doors. “Ready?” Eric asks.

I square my shoulders and nod, a spark of excitement lighting within me. “Let’s do this.”