Would she have to stop completely?
The way anyone with a lick of common sense would?
A million questions blasted through her mind, and she willed them away, filling two long skewers with three olives each before plopping them into the martini glasses, making the vodka splash. A smirk lifted the corners of her lips when Matthew and his friend reared away from the splashes, taking their drinks and retreating without another word, shaking their heads the whole way.
Veda narrowed her eyes at them, searing their backs with her gaze, unaware of the dozens of other customers who were still vying for her attention.
“Veda!” Dante called from the end of the bar. “Take ten, baby.”
He didn’t have to ask her twice. Even as the customers still waiting for their drinks complained to Dante, for the millionth time since she’d been hired, that she was the worst, she untied her apron and left the bar, stomping toward the back hallway with a huff.
4
Free from her impatient customers and Matthew Russo’s smirking, self-satisfied mug, Veda’s breathing remained shattered as she made her way through the back hallway of Dante’s. The music, talking, and laughter filling the bar grew fainter with each step. Fainter still as she threw open the back door that led into the alley.
Her combat boots crunched on the inky, soiled asphalt as she stepped into the narrow alley. The passage went quiet, save for the muffled boom of bar music making the door vibrate, and the rhythmic drip of water someplace she couldn’t see. The nippy air stabbed her bones, and she crossed her arms over her body, wishing she’d thrown a coat over her black baby tee and mini-skirt.
Her big brown eyes scanned the wall on the opposite side of the alley, covered in so much graffiti the brick layer underneath had almost disappeared. Whoever had taken the time to create the beautiful mural clearly considered it a labor of love, which was exactly what she felt every time she looked at it. Dante must’ve felt the same, because he’d yet to have it painted over.
She approached the mural, wondering at the artist’s attention to detail and also his keen understanding of self. Every time he returned to the alley and expounded upon the graffiti, it evoked a different emotion. Veda felt like she’d grown to know that rogue vandal very well. Just from looking at his art. His darker work was her favorite. Like the piece he’d just finished a few nights ago—a skull with a head full of wild red curls, even redder lips and a cigarette hanging between its teeth. Was that red haired skull long passed its demise, or clawing for the last few precious seconds of life?
Veda couldn’t decide. Not for herself, or that redheaded skull woman.
Even if Veda was clawing for her life, did Linc have every intention of stopping her before she found it?
Her stomach went sick because all signs pointed to yes.
“Hey, beautiful.”
The unexpected voice drew a gasp from her lips, and as she turned toward it, a smile was already lighting up her face because she’d recognize that voice anywhere. The voice that made everything better. That rendered life worry-free. That made the dark questions tainting her mind disappear as quickly as they’d come. Blasted away by a beam of light impossible to fight.
Gage had made an attempt at casual that evening. In dark washed jeans, a white t-shirt, and a brown leather jacket, he still looked like something that had fallen out of a Neiman Marcus catalog before wandering into a back alley somewhere. His jet black hair had more product than usual, giving it a subtle swoop at the front that she’d already decided she loved. With his hair gelled away from his face, the strong features that made him so handsome were free to take center stage: his straight nose, his thick black eyebrows and shadowed jaw, so chiseled it could cut glass. The dark brown of his eyes pierced her soul even from across the way, as they often did, and the smile picking up the corners of his plush pink lips drew her in. A muscle under his jaw rolled when she grinned in return.
“Baby,” she purred, her grin evolving into a beaming smile. As soon as the beaming smile was there, however, it was gone, replaced with a scowl as she nodded toward the end of the alley over his shoulder. “Get the hell out of my sight. You don’t belong here, you rich prick. God, I fucking despise you.”
Gage tried to fight his smile, softly massaging his shadowed jaw as she went through her tirade. “That rant is a lot less convincing when it’s right on the heels of that gorgeous smile you just gave me.”
Veda rolled her eyes with a scoff. “Well, I can’t help it. You make me happy.”
“You make me happy too, baby.”
She zeroed in like a vulture. “Then don’t do this.”
“It’s already done.”
“So undo it.”
“Veda, we’re not doing this again. My first cruise sets sail tonight, and I’ll be gone for nearly a month. I don’t want to fight on our last night together for a month.”
“We wouldn’t have to fight if you obeyed my commands like a good boyfriend should.”
He paused. “I had to sign a contract last night to secure my position at the cruise line.”
Her face fell.
He nodded. “My parents laid it out. It stipulates that I’m to marry Scarlett before the start of summer season or I lose out on my trust fund and my inheritance. That’s everything I have. That’s everything we have. That belongs to our future children. There’s no way out now. I have to finish what I started.”
“Summer season?” Veda’s teeth bared. “That’s two months away.”
“Plenty of time for me to find out what the hell is going on and put an end to all of this for good. Then we won’t have to sneak around anymore. Look over our shoulders anymore. We’ll be free to start our family and love each other without this madness looming like a dark cloud over our lives.”
He took a step forward.
She stepped back.
He paused, tilting his head at her, in the midst of protesting. He stopped himself.
“Gage, you don’t have to prove anything to me. I know you’re not like them. I trust you. I believe you.”
“Someone attacked you.”
“And that someone is in jail.”
“This goes deeper than Penny Nailer and her goons, Veda. The real culprit is going to pay for what they did.”
“You don’t even know who the real culprit is.”
“I’m the only one who can find out. And I will. If you really trust me like you say, then trust that.”
Veda sputtered.
Taking her stumbles as a win, he straightened. “Now, I told you I’m done having this argument, and I meant it. Let’s not do this on my last night.”
She huffed, crossing her arms tighter, still unable to help the playful grin that spread her lips as he moved closer. “Well, since you’re an engaged man now, you’re taking one hell of a gamble being back here with me. One of your rich friends could come out here at any moment and see us.”
“And risk dirtying up the soles of their diamond crusted shoes?” He shook his head with a smile. “No. No one in my circle would be caught dead out here.”
“Including you, right? Something about you in this alley just doesn’t quite…” Her eyes ran all six-foot-three-inches of his broad, muscled body. “… Fit.”
“If you fit, I fit.”
“I dunno…” She squinted, pointing up at the two buildings that flanked them, surveying the rusted fire escapes on both sides. “Your cufflinks alone are probably worth more than both these buildings combined.”
“I’m not wearing cufflinks.”
“Fine. Your jacket then. Bet you could buy both these buildings with that jacket alone. What is it? Ferragamo? Yves Saint Laurent?”
Gage removed his Armani jacket, the long lines of his muscled arms ebbing and pulsing under his t-shirt as he did. He held the brown leather up in the air with two fingers, eyes locked to hers, and then dropped it.
Veda watched it fall, landing in a metallic puddle of God-knows-what on the ground, before lifting her
eyes to him. “Look at my baby, living on the edge. Jacket in the puddle like ‘I don’t give a fuck.’ What a bad ass…”
Gage stepped closer.
She backed away with a soft laugh. “Someone will see us.”
“I don’t give a fuck.” He paused in mid-approach, doing his best to imitate the accent she’d just used.
Veda chortled, studying him from the corners of her eyes while nibbling her bottom lip.
He raised his eyebrows and bit his bottom lip too.
And she squealed, closing the space between them in three long strides before jumping into his arms.
He caught her with ease, deep laughter rumbling in his chest, making hers rumble too as he wrapped his big arms around her and sealed their bodies together. She locked her legs around his solid waist and her arms around his broad shoulders, never feeling safer than she did right then.
He craned his neck back to search her eyes. Removing one hand from around her body—still holding her easily with one—he cupped her jaw. His thumb-stroked her cheek as their noses nuzzled together.
Her whispered voice came. “You sure nobody inside saw you come back here?”
“I never went inside. Spotted you on the way in and did an about face.”
She breathed deeply as he began walking, knowing he was carrying her to an area of the alley where there was a sizable gap in the brick wall. A crater just large enough to fit them both and shield them from view of any passerby.
“Is this our new normal?” she asked. “Have you deemed the alley our official make-out spot? Because I personally find the pantry a lot sexier. And warmer.”
“I’ll keep you warm.”
“Promises, promises.”
“Is that a challenge?”
“Maybe…”
Once they were in the crater, he set her down, but kept his forehead against hers, bending his spine as he cupped both her cheeks. Even as he bent down, she still had to stand on her tiptoes as he angled their noses and drew her bottom lip softly between his.
A sharp breath spread his nostrils as he tasted her, flaring wider still as he returned for more, over and over. The kiss went from sweet to deep in the blink of an eye, and soon her back was against the wall, her ass trapped under his greedy hands, and his hardness pressed into her stomach.
She moaned into the kiss they’d yet to break, her center clenching for more.
When their lips finally parted, smacking softly in their retreat, his hooded eyes searched her face, following the pads of his fingers as he pushed a wisp of curls that had escaped her ponytail away from her eyes. “You’re so beautiful.”
Veda grinned, loving when Gage, one of the smartest men she knew, devolved into a tongue-tied mess whenever he was touching her the way he was right then, unable to construct a single coherent sentence that wasn’t an erotic request or a compliment on her beauty.
She bit her bottom lip around her smile, finding herself falling into that same vat, wrapping her arms around his neck and using his strength to help keep her upright. “You’re the most handsome man in the world.”
He nudged the tip of her nose with his, the breath mint in his mouth making the sliver of air between their lips smell heavenly. “I hope our kids look like you.”
She came up higher on her toes, pulling him in. “I hope they look like you.”
“I don’t know, I hear those African genes are pretty strong.”
“Nowhere near as strong as those Italian ones. Our kid is going to come out of the womb shouting, ‘ciao bella’.”
Gage’s eyes shone, giving her ass one last squeeze before sucking in a breath and tugging his belt buckle apart. “Why don’t we find out? As quickly as possible?”
“As quickly as possible, huh? Words every girl longs to hear when she’s about to have sex with her boyfriend.” She giggled when he reached under her mini skirt and pulled her panties down. They puddled around her ankles as she whimpered, “My customers are waiting for me.”
“What else is new?” He seized her waist and yanked her in.
Their lips parted wide and met once more, sinking into a kiss that left them both gasping in each breath. Every soft sweep of their tongues brought their bodies closer together. Every lick and suck, until there wasn’t a single inch of their bodies that wasn’t sealed together. The music of their embrace filled the quiet alley, moving to a slow crescendo, every slippery soft brush of their mouths playing a different note.
Veda whimpered into the heavy kiss, tilting her head as she helped him finish undoing his belt and jeans. Her trembling fingers disappeared past his waistband, and her whimper moved to a guttural moan when she cupped his hardness through his boxers. The velvety skin of his dick teased her through the slit, and when she got her hand inside, it was his tortured groan that warmed their kiss.
And he was gone. She knew he was when he shoved his pants and underwear down without a word, his hardness standing tall in the cool air. Removing his clothes completely meant breaking their fervent kiss, so he abandoned them at his knees, letting the fabric bunch up before seizing her mini skirt and giving it the same treatment, shoving it down her legs. It pooled to a heap at her ankles, right alongside her panties.
Veda gasped when he didn’t waste a moment sinking three of his smooth fingers inside the slick walls of her pussy, immediately finding her G-Spot.
“Yes,” she gasped, her nails clawing at the back of his t-shirt, desperate to rip it off, but again, unwilling to break their ardent kiss. Unable to break away from the violent shot of pleasure that zoomed through her when he found her clit with his thumb, massaging it in time with the fingers he had buried deep inside her. She nearly ripped the cotton apart. “God, Gage, yes.”
His touch brought her body to life, and in seconds, her wetness joined the desperate smack of their lips, taking the melody of their humming bodies to another level, the ballad bouncing off the alley’s brick walls.
He broke their kiss, wrapping her curly ponytail around his free hand and forcing her head back, exposing her neck. He dove in, suckling the sensitive skin under her chin, flicking his tongue against it in time with his fingers, lighting fire to every inch of her, leaving her convulsing.
Veda’s knees buckled as she came, but he held her steady with a strong arm still around her waist, keeping her upright. She threw her head back and slammed her eyes closed as the tight knot he’d ignited in her pussy exploded and spread over every inch of her body, so powerful she was sure her skin rolled with it as it moved.
Still rocking against his magical fingers, Veda’s head fell forward, and she claimed his eyes, gasping as her hips rocked against his hand, her aching clit still riding the wave on the rotating bed of his thumb, her G-Spot on his soaking fingers. She swallowed the lump in her throat and claimed his rock hard column, stealing a hiss from his tightly clenched teeth.
He cursed under his breath and laid his forehead on hers, his heated brown eyes looking between their bodies, watching her as she stroked him just the way he liked. Just the head, trapped under the tight vise of her fingers, rotating the aching tip like a corkscrew, a move she knew could make him cum in seconds.
“Please don’t take that job,” she begged.
This time, he didn’t have it in him to fight. He still didn’t have it in him when she removed his hand from her pussy, his fingers shining with her peak, and faced the wall, her big brown eyes locked with his over her shoulder. He didn’t have the strength to fight when she jutted her bare ass out toward him, her pussy still gleaming with her orgasm, and guided the pulsing tip of his dick to her entry.
Gage seized her hips with a sharp gasp as she guided the tip inside, laying his stomach on her back. He yanked her into him and drove deep, eliciting an astonished scream from her. He clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle it, all while muffling his own strangled moans into the crook of her shoulder.
Veda craned her neck as he fucked her, nice and slow, reaching an arm behind her and burying her fingers in his hair.
“Don’t go,” she whimpered, her full lips brushing his cheek in a soft kiss. She followed it up with her tongue, licking the muscle rolling under his jaw as his stroke grew fervent and desperate.
Gage couldn’t speak. Every bone in his body rumbled as the beginnings of his orgasm approached, and all he could do was grip her thighs in both hands and thrust with all his might, his groans growing stronger by the moment, still muffled in her shoulder.
“Baby I’m gonna come,” he gasped as she worked her hips in slow circles around his hardness, with just the tip inside. “Oh, Jesus. Keep doing that, don’t stop, don’t st—”
The sound of the door to the alley opening—causing the music from inside to blast out into the night air—stole a gasp from Veda. Her eyes widened as she covered Gage’s hands, which still clutched her bare thighs so tightly he made sinkholes, and shook him.
“Someone just came outside,” she whispered, straightening, causing his dick, glistening with their love, to pop out.
Gage growled softly at her retreat, blind with need, laying every inch of his body against hers until she was sealed to the jagged brick wall, one arm still locked around her waist while the other tried to guide his aching dick back inside her warmth.
“Gage,” she whispered, through clenched teeth.
“Fuck,” he breathed, agonized, burying his nose in her hair, barely resisting the scream that tried to race up his pulsing throat. “This is my last chance to have you, and I can’t even finish?”
Veda watched him over her shoulder. “It doesn’t have to be the last time.” She swallowed heavily. “You could cancel all of this, and we could leave. Leave this godforsaken island forever and never look back.”
His mouth dropped.
Hers did too, just as shocked by her own words as he seemed to be. And she’d meant them. If he gave her the yes, right then, she’d drop everything and leave Shadow Rock, with him by her side, forever. She’d leave without finishing the quest that had brought her back. She’d leave without a goodbye to all of the friends she’d made. She’d leave without a word.
Raw (Revenge Book 6) Page 3