Page 100 of Lovely Venom

I walk over to the chair and set down my bag. He pulls me closer until I’m standing between his legs. His gaze tips up as he looks at me, and even though I can’t see the depths of his eyes, I feel the war waging behind them.

He’s wrestling with something, and if I had to guess, it’s that this has to be the end. I don’t know what his life outside of here is like, but he deserves more than cloaked meetings and my emotional baggage.

He was reluctant to meet with me again, and I can’t blame him. He probably has an endless list of women who can offer him more than this.

Swallowing the conflict rising inside me, I revert to humor, because it’s easier than sorting through whatever the hell this feeling is.

“Could you not have had at least one terrible flaw?”

When he doesn’t smile, I think he really has ruined me. Because the knot in my throat feels permanent, and even now, there’s a small part of me that wants to ask him to keep me.

As if he could.

As if any of this could ever work when I’m…me.

Slowly, he rises to his feet, fingers ghosting over my jaw as he claims my mouth in a drugging kiss. It sends a million tiny sparks through me, even as pressure builds behind my eyes.

I don’t want it to end, and I really, really don’t want to cry in front of him. But, inevitably, he releases me, his gaze drifting to the silver chain against my throat.

The keys are in his trouser pocket, but he doesn’t retrieve them, and I don’t ask him to.

“I do have at least one terrible flaw,” he murmurs.

“What is it?” I rasp.

He drags his thumb over the lock around my neck, a thread of possession darkening his voice.

“Goodbye, dea.”

20

CHANTEL

“Are you okay?”

“What?” I blink.

“You’ve been staring at that onesie for the last five minutes,” Abella points out.

“Oh.”

“She’s exhausted from getting dicked hard all night.” Serafina smirks.

“Yeah, probably,” I mumble, regretting my choice to send those emojis in the group chat earlier.

I didn’t really think through the follow-up questions, and I still haven’t fully processed everything that happened.

“Ugg,” Abella groans. “I have to pee again. I’ll be back in a few.”

“I’ll walk with you,” Val says. “I need to grab some water. Anyone else want anything?”

The rest of us tell them we’re good, and they wander down the hall, leaving me alone with Lucia and Serafina. Naturally, the moment she has the opportunity, Serafina pounces.

“Are you ever going to tell us who it was?” She eyes the bite mark on my neck.

“Does this have anything to do with what happened at Eden?” Lucia asks.

“Wait, what happened at Eden?” Sera glances between us.