Yearn (Revenge Book 4)

by Burns, Trevion

  Celeste’s green orbs came alive when their eyes met across the outdoor dining table, her ample bosom heaving under the tight neckline of her black wrap dress. Her spine was stick-straight, almost as taut as the thin line of her red lips. Behind her, the family’s largest cruise ship, boasting her moniker, glowed from the shipping dock in the far distance. The waves were quiet that night, only licking the jagged black rocks that soared into the night sky at every angle. The soft trickle of the family's infinity pool made more noise than the waves.

  Even Celeste’s breathing became audible, higher—louder—every second.

  “Mother, I can’t eat if this is how you’re going to behave.” Gage felt his own lips pulling tight. He lifted the black cloth napkin from his lap, swiping it across his downturned lips before motioning to Celeste. “If you have something you’d like to say to me, please go ahead and say it now so I can enjoy my dinner in peace.”

  Across from Celeste, Gage’s father, David Blackwater, lifted his shock-white eyebrows, just as alarmingly bright as his close-cut hair. His icy gray eyes searched Gage’s face with a soft frown growing between his brows as if he couldn’t decide whether he was angry or proud of his son for the tone he’d just taken with Celeste.

  Apparently, David landed on proud, shifting his attention to Celeste in anticipation of her response.

  Celeste, who’d yet to touch her food, too busy glaring at her only son, drew in a breath that made her milky breasts rise dangerously close to the edge of her neckline, thin nostrils expanding.

  “Well, Darling, as much as I hate to ruin your father’s and my appetites by bringing this up,” Celeste said. “I suppose you’ve left me no other choice.”

  “Mother, please get on with it.”

  “Word has it you were seen leaving Dante’s with Veda Vandyke last night,” Celeste said. “And dropping her off at the hospital this morning. I won’t waste my time asking whether or not it’s true since the contemptuous tone you’ve taken with me this evening is all the proof I need that she’s managed to battle-ram her way into your head and continue her manipulations once more. I honestly believed you were more perceptive than this. You truly are so easily manipulated, it’s laughable.”

  Gage’s jaw clenched.

  “Is this true?” David asked him.

  Gage’s stomach turned, appetite officially ruined. “None of your business.”

  “None of our business?” David beamed.

  Celeste jumped in. “It most certainly is our business. What did we talk about when we re-instated your position as CEO at the hospital? What did we talk about the night you called me, falling to pieces after that devious woman threw your entire relationship to the dogs for no good reason?”

  “I’m not a puppet on your goddamn string,” Gage spat.

  David’s eyebrows jumped. His spine snapped straighter. Once again, he appeared at a loss as to whether he was angry or proud.

  Celeste huffed. “Darling, can’t you see? Before you met Veda, you’d never dream of speaking to me this way—you’d never dream of it!” When Celeste’s voice began to quiver, she covered her mouth with the pads of her slim fingers, eyes fluttering shut. Only when her breathing had relaxed did she lift her eyes back to Gage, voice level once more. “What about that lovely pediatric surgeon, Stephanie Cochran? Didn’t you tell me you made plans with her this weekend?”

  “I can’t imagine why you’re so open to Stephanie, yet so repulsed by Veda, even though they both have the same education, the same job titles, and fall into the same tax brackets. I really can’t imagine why, Mother.” Gage’s fists tightened, eyes moving to his father. “Care to venture a guess?”

  Celeste huffed again, lifting her chin high while looking off toward the black ocean. She kept her eyes away, drinking in the view, and then stood from her chair, tossing her waist length black hair away from her face as she did. The stick-straight strands soared through the air with a life of their own, dancing with the breeze as her heels clicked against the pavement in her haste to leave the table.

  Her scent engulfed Gage as she sauntered away, but he didn’t watch her go, collapsing in his seat and covering his mouth with his hand.

  Only when the click of her heels had disappeared, just a moment after the squeak of the backdoor rang out into the back yard, did Gage lift his eyes to David.

  “You’re on one hell of a roll. I’ve got to give you that.” David chuckled, still annihilating his food as if nothing was out of the ordinary. “Your grandfather won’t be pleased.”

  “Veda and I aren’t back together.”

  He shot Gage a lazy-eyed look.

  Gage read in his father’s eyes the words he wouldn’t even bother to say. “So not only are you out to control who I date, but who I’m friends with as well?”

  “Friends.” David smiled, the amusement that had been plain in his eyes moving to a higher level. “You cannot be friends with Veda Vandyke, son. And not because of us. Not because it makes us ill to know she’s wiggled her way into your impressionable ear once more. You can’t be friends with her—because of you.”

  Gage remained hunched back in his seat, massaging the pads of his fingers to his lips. “People hate us.”

  This time, David did stop eating, dropping his utensils like they’d caught fire, the amusement in his eyes vanishing as he blazed a look of warning at Gage.

  Gage’s stomach tightened. “I spent less than a month pursuing a seat on the board at The Terrance Gloss Foundation, but that was all the time I needed to learn just how hated we really are. And people don’t just hate us for our money—like you’ve always led me to believe. No.”

  David rolled his eyes.

  “It’s not envy.” Gage’s voice lowered. “They think we’re monsters.”

  David cut a look at Gage from the corners of his eyes. They widened.

  “They think we’re animals.”

  “Gage—”

  “They think we play a hand in the poor kids disappearing on this island in record numbers. The kids who disappear from this island every single day. They think we play a hand. Do you know that, Father?”

  David looked away, jaw tight.

  “Of course you do,” Gage said. “But you’ve allowed me to believe, my entire life, that they were simply jealous of our success. That they hated us for our blessings. That they’d rather point the finger at us than raise the bar for themselves.” Gage frowned. “Tell me it isn’t true.”

  David’s head slowly lowered, glaring at Gage from under his eyelashes.

  “Tell me every person who hated me on sight at that foundation was wrong.” When nothing came, Gage’s voice rose. “Tell me.”

  David let a silence fall, chest heaving, teeth baring, dragging his own napkin across his frowning lips before throwing it down in disgust.

  “Tonight, for the first time in my life, son, I found myself proud of you. Watching you stand up to your mother the way you just did. I was proud. But you’d do well not… to push… your luck.”

  The color drained from Gage’s face as he leaned forward, heart hammering, seconds from spilling every venomous word on the tip of his tongue, but the click of Celeste’s heels stole his retort. He’d believed his mother had strutted away, pouting, with no intent on returning, but as the click of her heels grew closer, he realized this was far from over.

  “I hate having to do this.” Celeste reclaimed her seat, met eyes with David, and then looked at Gage, clutching a stack of papers. “But you’ve honestly left me no other choice, my darling.”

  Gage scratched an eyebrow, blinking slowly, lazily. “Save the dramatics, please, Mother, and just drop it. Drop whatever bomb you think will revitalize the control you wield over me once more. Drop the bomb that will poison Veda in my eyes forever.”

  Gage realized he almost wanted his mother to unleash whatever bomb she had clutched in her hands. He wanted her to ruin Veda in his mind forever because it was becoming abundantly clear that he was completely incapable of doin
g it himself.

  On the other hand, he couldn’t help but flashback to the night before, when he’d fallen into the deepest sleep he’d had in weeks, nose tucked into her curls, the coconut scent easing him deeper into slumber each second. He couldn’t help but flash back to the moment his eyes had fluttered open and widened in shock at the sunlight wafting through the curtains. The warmth in his heart at the weight of her head on his chest. The even warmer cavern of her pussy as he came between her legs, their eyes still heavy with sleep, making love to her before they’d even found the strength to utter their whispered good mornings.

  He drew in a sharp breath.

  Yes.

  He almost wanted Veda destroyed in his mind forever.

  He almost dared his mother to do it.

  Because, like his mother, he could already feel himself falling deeper into the abyss. The abyss that was Veda Vandyke. The abyss that had almost killed him once, and appeared well on its way to doing it twice.

  He was snatched away from his thoughts—away from the vision of her face—when Celeste dropped the papers she’d been clutching on top of his half-eaten plate.

  Gage’s eyes fell, drinking them in. The papers were actually photographs, and only a moment after examining the photo of Veda and Linc embracing in her living room, his eyes fluttered shut.

  His stomach went sick, realizing Celeste had done it.

  She never disappointed.

  “Heavens, my darling, what does it take?” Her voice came more calmly, apparently placated at the sight of his pain, locking onto the gentle breeze and wafting across the table to take him around the neck. “What does it take to bring this infatuation—this obsession—with Veda to its completely inevitable and painfully long overdue end?”

  Drawing in a deep breath, hoping it would help wash away the terrible feeling permeating every inch of him, Gage lifted his eyes to Celeste, trying to keep any indication to the storm inside him at bay.

  Still, he knew she could see it. The hint of crimson glowing on his cheeks. The subtle clench of his teeth as the anger ate him alive. The soft pink veins reddening the whites of his eyes.

  She saw his pain, and the corners of her lips begged to lift.

  Just like she saw Gage, he saw her too.

  He flew to a stand, the legs of his chair disagreeing with the patio pavement. Without another word or even a sideways glance, he left the table, feeling their eyes burning into his back as he went.

  ——

  “I need to see you.”

  Anxiety rolled in Veda’s gut, and she tightened her hold on the phone trembling against her ear. Not because she didn’t want to see Gage too, but because she was quickly beginning to learn exactly what those words meant when he called her after midnight saying them. It was just another reminder of how royally she’d screwed up her relationship. How royally she’d hurt him. Reduced to nothing but a late night distraction. Once upon a time she’d been his first love, his fiancée, his everything.

  “I--” she stumbled. Tell him no. Tell him to stop calling after eleven pm. You’re not a booty call. You’re a woman who loves him and wants to fix things. “I’m home,” she whispered instead.

  He hung up without another word, and she raced to the shower. As much as she hated their new unspoken arrangement, she’d be damned if she wasn’t fresher than a motherfucker the moment he arrived.

  Half an hour later, freshly showered, donning a white terrycloth robe, Veda opened the door for Gage. And she saw it.

  It was all over his face.

  The anger. The pain. The slow fade. He was standing before her, but retreating. Standing before her, but leaving.

  Wearing steel gray pants and a matching jacket with a white t-shirt underneath, she knew this was his idea of casual. That was apparently what she’d become to him, after all.

  Casual.

  Hands in his pockets, his eyes searched her face for only a moment before running her body. Gone were the days when he held her eyes adoringly as if he could stare into them for eons. Gone was the gentle smile he couldn’t help at the very sight of her. Gone were the days when she could barely get a word in edgewise because he had so much to say to her. To share with her.

  Now, he stepped into her apartment quietly, already peeling off his jacket as his gaze perused her body. His delicious scent wafted in after him.

  Veda closed the door and faced him, feeling her knees shaking. Wishing he would just meet her eyes. Just look at her. Just talk to her.

  His nostrils widened as his eyes locked in on her breasts, hidden deep under the flaps of her robe. He took in a deep breath that made his chest expand. The tightness of his jaw went to dangerous levels, making the muscle move under his skin.

  I love you. I want you back. Tell him. Say it. She opened her mouth to do just that, but no words came.

  There was only so many times a woman could tell a man she loved him, and not hear it back before the rejection became too unbearable. Just a few days into being his new booty call and Veda had already hit her limit.

  “How was dinner with your family?” she asked instead.

  His eyes shot up to hers. “Who said I was at dinner with my family?”

  Her eyebrows jumped at his tone. Even as his booty call, he still rarely took that tone with her. “I know you always have dinner with them on Sundays, that’s all. And you always walk away from those dinners just as livid and on edge as you appear to be right now.” She tried to smile but felt it shaking, so she bit it back.

  Another deep breath lifted his broad chest, and his eyes were gone again, this time falling all the way to the tie in her robe. Instead of answering her question about dinner, about what his parents had said or done that had that muscle in his jaw rotating like a rolling pin, he silently reached out, took hold of the tie on her robe, and ripped it apart.

  Veda gasped at his swiftness, and again when her naked body was revealed to him as the flaps fell open.

  He stepped in, his scent engulfing her and drowning her with light. Slipping a hand into the flap of her robe and circling his arm around her back, he yanked her forward while bending his knees.

  When he stood tall, Veda was off her feet, forced to wrap her legs around his waist. He began carrying her to the bedroom.

  She tried to cup his jaw and look into his eyes, but his lips found her neck instead, hiding his face away. The gentle smacks of his kisses filled the apartment as he sampled her skin. The sensation was so amazing that she couldn’t help but tilt her head to the side for more.

  Tomorrow she promised herself. Tomorrow, I’ll talk to him about us.

  For tonight, her neck was aflame under the heat of his tongue, her skin aching for more, humming. Her center followed suit, right on schedule, blood racing straight from her heart to her pulsing pussy, her white-hot need for him leaving the rest of her body neglected as he laid her down on the bed.

  Tonight, she just wanted him. Even if it was an irate, quiet, diminishing version of him. She wanted him in any way he was willing to let her have him.

  Tomorrow, she’d face reality.

  24

  ‘Tomorrow’ turned into days. Days into weeks. Before Veda could blink, she’d found herself entrenched in friends-with-benefits status with her ex for several weeks. An ex that seemed to grow more irate with her by the day. That seemed to both crave her company and resent it. That seemed like he was an entire galaxy away.

  She’d put this off for weeks, but she couldn’t put it off anymore.

  “I feel sick.” Veda’s knees shook as she made her way up the driveway of the sprawling mansion before her with her cellphone on her ear.

  The roll of the waves at the bottom of the cliff behind her seemed so loud she peeked over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t in danger of being swallowed whole. Met with nothing but the sunrise peaking over the horizon, an orange glow shooting across the surface, she still wasn’t relaxed. Her anxiety doubled because she realized she’d rather be swallowed up in that water than s
wallowed up by the man on the other side of that door.

  “I have no idea what I’ll do if he… if he…” Veda couldn’t form words, frozen at the cast iron double doors of the home. She couldn’t even knock.

  “Listen…” Hope’s voice wafted through the receiver. She was hunched in the driver’s seat of an old Honda parked across the street. “I told you not to let him hit after eleven pm, and you disregarded my expert advice. Not only did you disregard my expert advice, you disregarded it for weeks. Weeks. You deserve what you get. You’ve done this to yourself. Now you’re padlocked in the casual sex box. You’ve gotta figure out how to claw your way out of the fiery pits of booty call hell. A fiery pit that no woman has ever managed to claw her way out of, to date. And not only are you trying to claw your way out of that bottomless pit, but you’re also trying to reclaim the engagement ring that once resided on your booty call finger? Girl.” Hope chuckled. “You should be afraid.”

  “Worst pep talk in history. Thanks a bunch.”

  “At this point you’ve got nothing to lose. Tell him you’re knocked up, and he’ll be putty at your feet.”

  “I don’t want him to take me back just because I’m pregnant. I want him… to want me back too. If he takes me back because of the baby, I’ll always feel like I forced his hand. Like I’m someone he secretly hates but tolerates because he has to.” Veda breathed deep. “Plus, my pregnancy is high risk. I’m not out of the woods for another three weeks. I don’t want to tell him about the baby, and then have him get all excited only to find out we lost it. I’ve already broken his heart once, Hope. I can’t do it twice. I can’t tell him about the baby until the twelve-week mark.”

  “Well, being knocked up was your one and only trump card, so…” Hope scoffed, illustrating Veda was shit out of luck. “Just spill your whole fucking heart out to him, I guess. Humiliate yourself if you have to. Leave everything on the table. That way, when he confirms that you have no choice but to burn in the depths of booty call hell, you can at least breathe easily knowing you gave it all you got.”