Quiver (Revenge Book 1) (16 page)

“I hate these things,” Veda countered, looking at Coco.

Coco frowned, bringing her hand up to tuck a piece of her spiral-curled hair behind her ear. As always, the long sleeves of her gown had been pulled all the way down, covering most of her fingers. It was pulled so tight that the neckline was stretched, showing a hint of her pink bra.

“No, I totally hate these things too,” Coco said, her eyes falling. “I’m just excited to hang with you, that’s all.”

Veda fixed the swooped neckline of Coco’s dress so her bra strap wasn’t showing.

“It’s okay if you love galas,” Veda told her. “It’s okay if you and I don’t always love the same things. Especially since I don’t love
anything.
We can disagree. It won’t make us any less….” Veda tried to stop herself before she said the word bouncing around in her head, but it slipped out before she could. “It doesn’t make us any less friends. Okay?”

Coco’s eyes blew up to twice their size at that word. Friends. She removed her arm from Veda’s so she could yank her sleeves farther down, showing her bra strap again, as a beautiful smile lit up her face.

“If you love something, express that,” Veda said. “If you hate something, express that too. Don’t ever let anyone make you believe your feelings aren’t valid. They’re valid. You’re valid.”

Coco blushed, her gaze dropping shyly to the floor.

Veda reached out and fixed her neckline again, making Coco’s sleeves ride up. She chuckled when Coco yanked them right back down, giving up.

“Aren’t you hot?” Veda asked. “You look stunning, but you’re always in long sleeves. It’s damn near a hundred degrees outside.”

Coco shrugged a shoulder. “My arms are ugly.”

“Lies, lies, and more lies. There are dancers at the New York City Ballet who would kill for those
Swan Lake
arms.”

Coco blushed again.

Veda nudged her shoulder, relinking their arms. “But, hey… it’s your body. If you want to cover up and be hot, go nuts. Who am I to tell you what to do, right?” She returned her eyes to the ballroom.

When she caught sight of Gage, standing across the room with Scarlett’s arm linked in his, smiling at two well-dressed men, Veda’s blood ran cold.

She was stunned at her body’s instant response, unable to pinpoint exactly what it was.

Distantly, past the blood pounding in her ears, making it hard to hear, she heard Coco whisper, “I’m really glad we’re friends, Veda.”

But Veda couldn’t respond because, across the room, Gage had caught sight of her as well. And it appeared he’d stopped listening to the people before him just as quickly as Veda had stopped listening to Coco.

He smiled at her, and when her body was hit with an urge to cross that room and do unthinkable things to his dick, Veda knew she was making the right decision.

Not for another moment could she allow him to take the reins of her mind and her body like he was right then.

Not for another moment could she deem her mind, her body, and her pussy—which already pounded for a taste of him—unrecognizable under his suggestive, emotive eyes.

She hadn’t come back to Shadow Rock to be distracted by that spit-shined rich boy, and this would be the night she ended things for good.

Before he destroyed it all.

—

Veda made it halfway through the main course before she couldn’t take it anymore. She was ready to go. Not because of the people at her table—she’d lucked out by being seated with her fellow anesthesiologist residents and some of her favorite nurses. Even the doctors who’d somehow been stuck sitting at their table were completely bearable. None of them seemed to suffer from the God complex most surgeons had, like the ones she had to tolerate every day at work. She wasn’t even ready to leave because of Coco, who hadn’t stopped giving her doe eyes since she’d made the colossal mistake of letting the word ‘friend’ slip from her lips earlier that night.

It was because, across the room at Table 1, she saw that Gage was barely listening to his mother, who was never
not
whispering in his ear. He cringed across the table at Todd, who he still wasn’t speaking to, as if it was taking every ounce of his will not to leap across that table, overturning the crystal centerpiece, and aim the steak knife in his hand at Todd’s throat. She saw the impatience staining his eyes whenever his father said
anything
. She saw the way he never looked Scarlett in the eye…

Because he was too busy looking across the room at her.

Veda only made it halfway through the main course because she could finally see that her casual relationship with Gage wasn’t just going to destroy her plans. Her life. Her future.

It was going to destroy his too. She couldn’t let him throw both their lives away for something she knew wasn’t going anywhere.

Still, the thought of ending it all didn’t sit as easily as it had when she’d arrived. And as each second, each minute, each hour passed with Gage ignoring his family completely to smile across the room at her, it made her feel more sick.

She put down her napkin and excused herself, needing a break. A break from the tedium of social interaction, a break from Coco’s gooey, BFF-laden eyes… and a break from Gage’s heated ones.

At first, she navigated her way through the dozens of tables in the ballroom with grace. She smiled when she caught a familiar eye here and there. But soon the thoughts in her head took over and she picked up her stride, stopping only long enough to brush the shoulders of people she knew.

When she made it out into the long, empty hallway, gold chandeliers lining the ceiling, it got a little easier.

Breathing.

She sucked in the new air, letting her eyes flutter shut as she followed the overhead signs to the bathroom, which led her around a corner and into a different hallway that seemed to go on forever.

Kind of like the war inside her. Her body felt at complete odds. She was sure that, if one of the asshole surgeons in the ballroom cut her open right there, they’d discover her organs had all turned on each other, firing shots with the intent to kill, unaware that killing one meant killing all.

She’d do anything to make it stop, whatever was happening to her.

She hadn’t even noticed she’d stopped in the middle of the hallway, cradling her hand on the wall, until someone took her arm from behind.

She gasped and looked over her shoulder.

One look into his brown eyes, gleaming down at her from behind, and the war in her stomach eased. The organs that had just a moment earlier been thirsty for blood lay their armor down.

“Gage,” she whispered, searching his eyes and spitting out the words she’d been practicing all night, before she could change her mind. “I need to talk to you.”

He tightened his fingers around her arm. “I….” A lump moved down his throat. “I need to talk to you too.”

“Me first.” She removed her arm from his grasp and took his hand, guiding him to the ladies’ restroom across the hall.

Her heels clicked on the tile floor as she stepped into the spacious bathroom.

His dress shoes did as well.

The stalls along the far wall were empty. A baby changing table hung open next to the sink, and the perfume sprayer bolted to the wall above it hummed as it dispensed another whiff of a pleasant lavender fragrance.

Veda walked into the middle of the bathroom, only turning to Gage when she heard the door click shut behind him.

Her words caught in her throat. He looked so handsome, gazing at her from the door with his hair slicked back, showcasing his breathtaking face in a way she’d never seen before. His tuxedo fit like a dream.

She noticed how he lingered at the door, even though it was closed, keeping his fingers on the handle as if he could sense the words about to leave her mouth and was steeling himself for escape.

But she wouldn’t let him escape. She wrung her hands together when he crossed the bathroom, coming in close enough for her to breathe in his spicy scent. When her pussy instantly surged with moisture in the presence of his aroma, she forced the words from her mouth.

“Gage, I really think that this thing between you and I—”

He covered her lips with his pointer and middle finger, stopping her before she could say another word. His lips puckered to shush her, but no sound came out. His fingers remained on her lips until he was sure she wouldn’t finish what she was saying—as if he already knew what she’d been planning to say—before letting his hand fall gently back to his side. He buried both hands in his pockets and watched her for a while.

A second lump moved down his throat, and the silence stayed so long it felt like a life all its own.

Finally, his whispered voice invaded the quiet air. “I kept waiting for what I knew I was supposed to feel when I looked at her for the first time.”

Veda felt her eyes padlocking themselves to his, falling into the emotion on his face. The strength in his voice. She could hear in his tone that this was difficult for him to say, but his voice didn’t quiver. His eyes didn’t leave hers. Never had she seen his body so sure of the words leaving his mouth. His eyes so sure of his heart.

She opened her mouth to say his name, to say
anything
to stop this.

Stop him.

She couldn’t.

He paused, and when his voice came again, it had dropped deeper. “I kept waiting to feel… the euphoria. The butterflies. The rush. Caring about a woman so much that… that the world could be on
fire
all around us, and I wouldn’t even notice it… or even feel it burning.”

Stop him.
Her mind screamed orders like a king whose realm was under attack.
Seize him.

She tried, but when she said his name, “Gage…,” she barely heard her own whispered voice.

He stepped closer. “For a long time, I wondered if I was even capable of it.” His aura encased her. “Until the first night we made love. Then it just hit me. With you, it wasn’t euphoria. It was…
nirvana
. It wasn’t butterflies. It was
vultures
.”

Her eyes expanded. She held her breath.

A smile threatened his previously drawn face, lighting it up as he made a claw at his stomach. “Vultures… clawing my stomach to pieces.” He drew in a haggard breath, cupping her jaw with one hand.

Veda inhaled sharply
.

Don’t let him touch you!
The petrified, ill-fated king in her head continued spitting orders her heart couldn’t follow.
Step back now!

She stepped forward, turning her cheek into his hand.

He stroked it with his thumb. “It wasn’t a rush. It was… a
surge
.”

Recovering, Veda tried to make light of his words. “Oh….” When her voice broke, she took a moment, knowing a shattered voice wouldn’t do. She swallowed, trying to compose herself. “Oh, it was a surge, all right. In fact, you and I have been doing a lot of
surging
lately—” A deep breath tore through her when he pressed his thumb to her lips, stealing the rest of her quip. He kept it there until she was silent once more. Leaning close, the tip of his nose swept hers.

Veda slammed her eyes closed, the false smile disappearing from her face. She tried to say his name, but the word got lost in her throat. She tried to step away, but her body wouldn’t move. All she could do was take the lapels of his jacket in her fists. She was sure she’d meant to push him away, but somehow she pulled, bringing him closer.

Still, when he leaned in, brushed his forehead to hers, and sucked her bottom lip gently between his, she stepped back, a soft gasp searing her throat, burning it, scorching her whispered words.

“Don’t do this to me,” she begged, feeling the fragility showcased in her eyes as she released his lapels, moving backward.

He moved with her, his brown eyes glowing, now riveted to her lips as if one taste had left him famished. He took two steps forward for every one she took back, his breath growing faint.

Veda gasped when her back hit the hall.

He pursued, on her in an instant, resting his hands on the wall on either side of her head, hypnotized by her lips as if the rest of her had ceased to exist. Their heaving breath met as he leaned in again, never moving his eyes from the bottom lip he’d just tasted.

Veda tried to turn her head but instead she felt herself lifting it, sighing when he received her bottom lip again, drawing it tenderly into the warmth of his mouth.

She pulled back, and they both gasped in her retreat. Her mouth tingled where his beard had excited her skin.

His eyes left her lips with what looked to be deep regret, rising to claim hers. The tips of his fingers brushed her cheek in the next moment, his other hand still cradled on the wall above her head. He angled his nose against hers on one side, then the other, his chest rising and falling heavier by the second. He let his breath warm her lips ever so slightly, keeping his own panting mouth just far enough away to allow her to pursue. Letting her know the choice was now hers.