Persuade: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance: Blood Persuasion Book 1

by Wendi Wilson

  “I take it back!” I surrendered when I couldn’t take the tickle torture anymore. “You’re not a freak!”

  He ended my punishment and crossed his arms over his chest, giving me a smile so cocky, so arrogant, I wanted to punch him right in the stomach. I balled a fist as my eyes narrowed in on my target. I glanced up at his face, seeing the anticipation etched there for a second before he covered it up. He almost got me.

  Not this time, my friend, I thought.

  Instead of losing my temper, I smiled and relaxed my hands, placing them on his knees. I spread my fingers wide and moved them upward, caressing his thighs as I went. His eyes widened and the cocky smile fled, making me feel victorious despite the fact that I had surrendered just moments before. The only problem was, I was getting caught in my own trap.

  I flicked out my tongue to wet my dry lips, which had Jett groaning as my fingers inched higher. His thighs were rock hard, making me want to explore the rest of him. I just couldn’t reach. I bucked my hips, silently encouraging him to release me. He took the hint and rolled back to his side of the truck bed.

  I sat up and curled my legs behind me and said, “Don’t move.”

  He obeyed, lying perfectly still with his arms at his sides. I decided to start there. I brushed my fingertips across his knuckles before running them up his arm, twirling around his elbow before trailing across his bicep. He flexed slightly, causing me to smile.

  I ran my hand across his shoulder, angling my fingertips down to brush his clavicle. I could see the muscles in his chest twitch beneath the fabric of his shirt and I had a sudden urge to see what lay underneath. I had only seen Wyatt shirtless that one time in gym class. I wondered if they were truly identical.

  Before I lost my nerve, I leaned in close to Jett’s ear while pulling at the fabric. “Take this off,” I whispered.

  I blinked and the shirt was gone. I was surprised because I fully expected him to make some smart remark, or, at the very least, give me an arrogant smirk to rub in the fact that I wanted to see him naked. He did neither. He actually looked a little nervous. And maybe a little eager.

  I touched his chest, pressing my palm flat against it over his heart. He sucked in a short gasp and panted softly, which filled me with pleasure. I moved my hand across his chest, letting my fingertips caress one flat nipple. A soft moan vibrated beneath my palm.

  I felt like an alien, like some previously insentient being inside my body had awoken and was taking me over, little by little. The old Savanna would have laughed out loud and called me an idiot if I told her I’d be there, in that moment, telling a gorgeous boy to take off his shirt so I could run my hands all over him. She’d secretly wish it were true, though.

  Ignoring my own inner dialogue, I moved my hand downward, exploring every ridge of his very bumpy abdomen. I counted the muscles as I went, four on each side. Despite being hard and muscular, the skin itself was a contradiction. Soft and smooth, my fingers glided across it until they reached a thin trail of hair leading from his belly button and disappearing beneath the waistband of his jeans. When my fingers reached that spot where skin met denim, Jett’s hand grabbed mine and he scooted up to a sitting position.

  “I, uh, think that’s enough for tonight,” he said in a shaky voice as he grabbed his shirt and pulled it back over his head.

  “Okay,” I mumbled.

  Maybe I went too far. Made him uncomfortable. Maybe he thinks I’m too slutty, ordering him to undress. Oh my God, am I a dominatrix now?

  “Savanna.”

  His voice pulled me from my ridiculous inner monologue. “What?”

  He grabbed my upper arms and pulled me into his lap so that I was sitting sideways with my head against his chest. He kissed the top of my head and rubbed his palm up and down my back in a comforting manner.

  “Stop thinking whatever self-recriminating thoughts you’re thinking right now. That was…amazing.”

  “It was?” I asked.

  “Yes. It was. I loved every second of it. It’s just, well, I was getting to the point where I might lose myself and ravish you right here in the bed of this truck.”

  I lifted my head so he could see my smile. “Ravish me, huh?”

  “Total ravishment,” he confirmed, nodding.

  He leaned in and kissed me then, a soft, sweet kiss that made my toes curl. Pulling away, he looked at me with an arched brow.

  “I do have a question, but you don’t have to answer if you don’t feel comfortable with it.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “Have you done that with either of my brothers?”

  “Ha! That’s a trick question if I’ve ever heard one. If I have, I’d refuse to answer, but then you’d have your answer.” He just smiled evilly, which made me laugh. “God, no. Wyatt would tease me mercilessly and Beckett would probably be scandalized.”

  “You might be surprised about Beck, but you’re probably right about Wyatt. I’m glad you feel comfortable enough with me to explore,” he said, finishing with a roguish grin. “Maybe one day you’ll return the favor?”

  “M-m-maybe,” I stuttered, blushing straight to my roots.

  I thanked the stars above it was dark outside, concealing my red face. I hadn’t even considered that he might think turnabout was fair play. I didn’t know what I would do if he asked me to take my shirt off. Just the thought sent a tremor through my body.

  “Savanna, I was kidding,” he said, rubbing my back again. “I would never do anything to pressure you into something you’re not ready for. Neither would Wyatt or Beckett. We care about you too much and are too happy to mess it up.”

  I relaxed, whispering a thank you. I leaned my head back against his shoulder and stared up at the sky once more. It really was vast and beautiful.

  “Thanks for bringing me here. I had a great time,” I said.

  “Me, too,” Jett said, nuzzling my exposed neck. “The best.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “What have you been up to? I feel like I hardly see you anymore,” Mom said as I walked into the kitchen Saturday morning.

  “N-n-not much,” I stuttered, stopping to take a deep breath and get control of myself. “Just hanging out with the guys.”

  I’d made the decision that when my parents asked about my relationship with the boys, I was going to be truthful. At least, as truthful as possible without offering any extra information. If either of them asked me point-blank what my connection to them was, I was going to be honest. I didn’t like lying to them.

  “What do you guys do?” she asked. “You’re with them an awful lot.”

  I grabbed the milk from the fridge and poured a glass. “All kinds of stuff,” I said in what I hoped was a nonchalant voice.

  “What kinds of stuff, Savanna?”

  Uh-oh. That was the Mom voice. I sat at the table, waiting for her to place a plate of eggs and bacon in front of me and take her own seat. The steam heated my face, and I hoped it would camouflage my blush. She sat and looked at me expectantly.

  “Where’s Dad?” Stall tactics.

  “At work. Talk. Now.”

  “I don’t know, Mom.” I flinched at the defensive note in my voice. “We hang out at Lucille’s. We do schoolwork. We go to the fair, the park, the beach.”

  “The beach? When did you go to the beach?”

  Oh, no. I messed up. Don’t lie. Don’t lie, Savanna.

  “Jett took me.”

  “Jett? I thought you were dating Wyatt.”

  I couldn’t look at her. “I am.”

  “So why did you go to the beach with Jett?”

  I opened my mouth, ready to blurt out the whole truth and face the consequences, but Mom’s cell phone rang, cutting me off. My guardian angel must have been looking out for me, and I sent up a silent prayer of thanks. Mom checked the screen on her phone and blanched.

  “Mom, what is it?”

  It was like she didn’t hear me. Like a movie in slow motion, her finger slowly lifted and tapped the scr
een, visibly shaking. She met my eyes as she lifted the phone to her ear. She listened, nodding her head like the person on the other end could somehow see her. Her eyes began to water as she nodded again and mumbled out an “okay.”

  The clatter of the phone hitting the floor broke me from my frozen state. My chair skidded across the tile floor as I flew from it and hit my knees in front of Mom’s chair. I rubbed my hands up and down her arms until she made eye contact.

  “Who was that?” I asked.

  “I need to call your father,” she said, bending over to look for her phone.

  I grabbed it and held it out of her reach. “Answer me, please.”

  Defeated. That was the only way I could describe her expression. “It was Dr. Patton.”

  My whole body jerked at the name, my breath leaving me in one big whoosh. “What? What did he want?”

  “He wanted to invite us to dinner. Tonight.”

  “Well, we’re not going,” I decreed, but she looked at me with sad eyes. “Right, Mom? We’re not going. Right?”

  She rubbed a palm over my head, smoothing my hair. “We have to, Honey. He said if we refused, he’d expose you. Not just to the community here, but to the government. They’d lock you away for testing and God knows what else. We can’t take that chance.”

  At that point, any other girl might cower in fear. Or cry. Me? I got mad. I stood and, without another word, stomped from the room. My mom tried to call me back, but I was beyond hearing. Beyond caring. I needed to talk to my guys.

  The whoosh of air and subsequent bang of my slamming bedroom door felt good. I grabbed my phone from my night stand and poked at the screen repeatedly, tapping all the wrong icons in my angry haste. I took a calming breath before trying again.

  I decided to video call Jett. That way, we could all talk at once. The phone vibrated in my hand to alert me that the call was answered, and Jett’s face popped up on the screen.

  “Good morning, beau—What’s wrong?”

  “Where are the others?” I gritted out.

  “Savanna, are you okay?” he asked.

  “Jett, please. Get Wyatt and Beckett first.”

  “Okay.”

  I could tell he was on the move as his face was bobbing in and out of view. He called out to his brothers before giving me a reassuring smile and walking back into his room. He set the phone down on what I assumed was a desk. He sat down in front of it and within seconds Wyatt and Beckett were flanking him.

  “Hey, Savanna,” Wyatt said, his grin vanishing as he got a look at my face. “What’s the matter?”

  “My mom got a call a few minutes ago,” I said between clenched teeth. “Your uncle has invited us to dinner tonight.”

  “What?” Jett said, his voice loud.

  “He didn’t mention it to us,” Beckett added.

  “No, I don’t suppose he would,” I said, my voice harsh as my anger rose. “He threatened us.”

  “Threatened?” someone asked, I don’t know who. All I could see was red.

  “He told my mom that if we didn’t show up, he’d expose me to the government and I’d be locked away for testing.”

  Shocked silence followed by words of comfort and assurance. They’d protect me. Nothing bad would happen. Everything was going to be okay. But I didn’t really hear them. My mind was working a mile a minute, thinking up ways to torture and eliminate the Great Doctor Patton.

  “Savanna!”

  Wyatt’s exclamation brought me back to the present and I focused my eyes on the screen. They each looked equal parts worried and angry. I tried to relax my face, count my breaths, and relax my body before I spoke again.

  “I’m okay,” I said.

  Jett arched a brow. “Really?” he asked, his voice doubtful.

  “No,” I said truthfully, “but I will be. I gotta go. I’ll see you all tonight.”

  I saw all three of their mouths open to protest, but I tapped the end call icon before they could speak. I threw my phone on the bed and stalked to the bathroom. I needed a shower. Not only would the hot water soothe my tense muscles, the shower was where I did my best plotting and planning.

  When I finally twisted the knob to stop the flow of water, I was no closer to a solution than I was before. My only consolation was that I had calmed down and decided that dinner with Dr. Patton wasn’t the end of the world. He obviously didn’t want to expose me, or he’d be exposing himself for breaking I don’t know how many laws when he experimented on pregnant women.

  I didn’t know what it was he wanted, but there was only one way to find out. I resolved to accept the situation and stop stressing over it. It is what it is was my mantra for the day. I combed the tangles from my wet hair before jetting naked across the hall to my bedroom. I’d totally forgotten to grab clean clothes when I decided to shower.

  Once dressed, I wandered into the main part of the house in search of my mom. I needed to make sure she was okay and inject some of my newfound calm into her. I heard voices coming from the family room, so I headed in that direction. I stopped in my tracks in the doorway.

  Jett, Wyatt and Beckett were standing in front of the couch, all eyes on me with mirroring looks of concern. They must have heard me coming because it looked like they were just waiting for me to appear. My eyes darted around the room, landing on my mom and dad, who must’ve hauled butt home from work, sitting on the loveseat. I got my feet moving again, shuffling toward them.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “The boys showed up a while ago,” Mom said, waving me further into the room. “They said you called them, but then hung up and they were worried.”

  I narrowed my eyes at them as they returned to their seats. Beckett looked abashed, but Jett and Wyatt just looked determined. I lifted one side of my upper lip in a snarl. Wyatt almost grinned. Almost, but not quite.

  “I’m fine,” I stated, squeezing in between Wyatt and Beckett on the couch.

  Mom gave me a weird look, her eyes darting to an empty armchair, but I ignored it. Beckett’s left hand was resting on the couch behind me, and he surreptitiously stroked my back with his thumb while making sure no visible part of him moved. Wyatt took my hand in his and squeezed before releasing it.

  “What were you guys talking about before I got here?” I asked, breaking the uneasy silence.

  Dad cleared his throat. “Oh, uh, we were trying to figure out what Dr. Patton might want.”

  “What he might want?” I asked, my voice rising with each word as my anger resurfaced. “What he wants is me! It’s always been me. Since the first prick of the needle into Mom. It’s. Been. Me.” I pounded a fist against my chest to punctuate each word.

  Mom’s face fell and Dad wrapped an arm around her as she started to cry. The anger drained out of me and I felt instantly contrite. I didn’t mean to blame her. She did what she did for me.

  “Mom, I’m sorry,” I said, my voice soft. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  She sniffed. “I know, Honey. But you weren’t wrong. This is all my fault. I decided to try the XRT-90 all by myself. That was the act that started this whole chain of events.”

  “You didn’t know,” I cajoled.

  She waved me off. “I’m okay. Crying about the past isn’t going to help us right now.”

  “Let’s go over everything we know, put it all together and see if we can come up with anything,” Dad said, pragmatic as ever.

  “Okay,” I said. “Well, we know Dr. Patton ran experiments on Mom and then me. He discovered I could persuade other Alts.”

  “He also knew about us,” Jett said. “As soon as our father, his twin brother, died, he swooped in and took legal custody of us. We are almost eighteen and had another home where we were happy. But none of that mattered. He wanted us here.”

  “But, why?” Mom asked.

  “The best we can tell,” I said, “is that he hoped that we would do exactly what we did— become friends and discover my ability. It’s like this whole thing has been anoth
er one of his experiments.”

  “Okay, so it’s been a while and now he’s suddenly making a move. What’s changed?” Dad asked.

  Everyone fell silent. I wracked my brain, trying to think what could have been the motivation behind his sudden invitation. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened in days, not since—

  “Oh, my God.”

  “What?” several voices asked at once.

  “Tuesday,” I said, my breath coming in short, panic-filled bursts. “The cameras.”

  The boys tensed and my parents started firing questions at me. I held up a hand to silence them as I took a few deep breaths to calm myself and slow my heartrate. I knew I was right. It was what he’d been waiting for.

  “After school,” I started, looking from Mom to Dad and back again, “the guys invited me over. Their uncle was supposed to work late, so I figured it would be okay. But not long after I got there, he showed up, claiming all his late appointments had cancelled.”

  “We figured out there were hidden security cameras at the house,” Beckett added, then looked over at me. “Wyatt spotted one in the foyer, built into one of the paintings.”

  That confirmed it. I was right. I looked back at my parents.

  “I met him—”

  “What?! Savanna, why didn’t you tell us?” my mom exclaimed, her back ramrod straight.

  “I didn’t think there was anything to worry about,” I hedged. “He was polite, we met, and that was the end of it. But after…”

  “What happened?” Dad asked, his voice calm considering the situation.

  I looked from one Alt to the next, keeping my eyes on them as I spoke. “We went out back, and the boys started fighting. I got mad. Real mad.” My eyes started to burn as I looked back at my parents. “I yelled at them to stop. I purposefully and successfully used persuasion on all three of them at once. Then, as I was leaving,” the tears were streaming by that point, “I released them. No strong emotion needed. I figured out how to use my ability at will.” I paused to let that sink in before adding, “And Dr. Patton probably got it all on tape.”