Quiver (Revenge Book 1) (7 page)

“It’s cool,” Todd said again, chuckling.

Veda blinked back to the present, drawing in a trembling breath. She shot Coco another look, saw her eyes were still riveted to the ground, and turned back to Todd.

“It doesn’t seem
cool
to her.” Veda’s mind went back to that morning, to Detective Lincoln Hill, and she stole his words. “Just because she’s a woman doesn’t mean her body belongs to you, or that it’s yours to judge. If she wants to wear a dress with her ass hanging out, then that’s her fucking prerogative. And if she wants to wear a burka where you can’t even see the whites of her eyes, that’s her fucking prerogative too. Either way, it doesn’t have a goddamn thing to do with you, and your opinion is neither welcomed nor appreciated.”

Todd pointed at her, an amused smile crossing his face. “I know you.” His smile grew. “You’re that crazy bitch from the beach last night.”

“So, not only is she a whore, but I’m a bitch.” Veda nodded. “Fantastic.”
God.
Was he dead yet? The vial prickled her palm
.
Her eyes fell to the drink he clutched, and it made her teeth itch.

Todd squinted. “Uh… who the fuck are you, again? I guess you moved to Shadow Rock and crowned yourself the pussy police. Did they give you a badge and a gun too?”

Veda felt her teeth baring. “Apologize to her.” That time, it was she who tightened her arm around Coco. When Todd laughed, her chest heaved. “Apologize.”

“
Okay
, I’ll apologize.” Todd looked at Coco and pressed his hands over his heart. “I apologize, Coco Puffs, that you decided to wear this slutty-ass dress tonight. Just try your best not to get raped, okay?”

Veda didn’t know she’d lunged for Todd until a bulging arm came around her waist and stopped her halfway. In the next instant, her feet left the floor. Her body immediately warmed from head to toe at the strength at her waist; she didn’t even have to look over her shoulder to know who’d taken her off her feet and carried her backward, putting several feet of space between her and Todd.

She could feel him. Smell him. His scent hit her like a bulldozer, making her head spin. She couldn’t tell if she was dizzy from fury, or something else.

Gage’s voice melted in from behind, warming her ears like butter. “Damn, Todd. Can we have a good night, for once? Can we just have a good fucking night?”

Todd locked eyes with Gage, who was in the midst of setting Veda back on her feet, motioning to Coco with a mock horrified expression. “Come on, man, Coco knows. I fuck with her like this all the time.”

“She doesn’t like it!” Veda roared, propelling forward against the arm Gage still had around her waist while motioning to Coco, whose arms remained crossed tight over her body, eyes still down. “Look at her. Sense the body language. She’s repulsed by you. She can’t stand being around you. How do you not see that? Or do you see it and secretly enjoy it? Do you get your rocks off knowing you’ve made a young girl extremely uncomfortable? What the
fuck
is wrong with you?”

Todd watched Veda with his mouth agape, and then he looked over her shoulder and met Gage’s eyes, his own growing wide with amusement.

Gage’s voice came in closer that time, warming her ear. “Let’s go.”

“No.” Veda turned and met his gaze for the first time. “I’m not ready to go.”

Gage’s eyes widened. “You took an Uber here, right?”

Veda cocked her head. How did he know that?

His voice lowered. “I’ll drive you home.”

Veda snatched away from his hold, huffing. She couldn’t go home until she got what she came for. As she faced Todd, however, who was looking at her like she had two heads, it occurred to her that it wasn’t the night. It couldn’t be. Not only did Todd have too many eyes on him, since he was the birthday boy, but he was now too aware of Veda. Supremely aware. He’d spend the rest of the night watching her like a hawk—if not out of curiosity, then at the very least to laugh at her with his idiot friends.

A tepid quiver ran through Veda when Gage’s hands cupped her shoulders. He let them run her arms, slow, soft, picking up every thin strand of hair he touched, and even the ones he
almost
touched.

Veda sucked in a breath.

“Fine,” she spat, inhaling when his hands tightened around her arms, drinking in the smirk on Todd’s face. “I’m not scared to fight a man,” she warned him.

Todd held his arms out. “I love taking beatings from women. Especially the unhinged ones.”

Veda rolled her eyes and turned to Gage, giving Todd her back.

Gage searched her eyes. The expression on his face was appropriately serious, but the corners of his lips were threatening to lift, revealing his secret amusement.

He brushed that knuckle down Veda’s stomach again, and when she stepped away, he lifted his eyebrows.

“Let’s go.” His gaze went over her shoulder and he nodded, smiling gently. “You too, Coco.”

He spoke to Coco with a much gentler tone, much warmer eyes, and a more comforting aura than Todd.

Coco’s eyes remained on the floor, tugging her sleeves so hard they swallowed her hands completely. “Totally,” she whispered. “I was totally ready to go anyway.”

“Good.” Gage placed one hand on the small of Veda’s back and the other on Coco’s shoulder, shooting Todd a look as they passed him. He nodded to Todd’s drink. “I think you’ve had enough, brother.”

Veda looked over her shoulder just in time to see Todd’s infuriating smile. He shouted over the small crowd that had gathered around them. “I’m only getting started, brother!”

Veda’s teeth ground.

Live it up now, asshole,
she thought as Gage led them out of the bar.

4

“Well, that escalated quickly.” Gage shot Veda amused eyes, the palm of his hand barely touching the steering wheel as he navigated the narrow streets of Shadow Rock. It was approaching the middle of the night, so the streets were quiet; nothing but the sound of crashing waves filled the air.

Leaning out of the open window of his Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, Veda watched the asphalt roll by. He’d painted the car a matte black, so the exterior blended with the street so well it almost disappeared, making her feel like she was flying. She wished she could fly. The moment she made that wish, however, she realized how useless it was. She’d already tried flying away—from Shadow Rock, from her past, from the constant ache in her gut. It wasn’t until she’d graduated medical school that it finally hit her.

She couldn’t fly away from herself.

Her eyes fluttered shut.

“That was so amazing,” Coco beamed. Veda knew she was leaning in from the backseat without even having to look. “The expression on Todd’s
face.
Oh my God. You know that nobody ever talks to him like that, right? Like, ever?”

“Then I guess I’m no one,” Veda said, lifting her head from the window and smiling back at her.

Coco returned her smile, her eyes falling shyly.

Yep, Veda needed to get the hell away from this one. If she let her, Coco would destroy everything.

But Coco wasn’t the only unplanned and unwanted distraction. Her accusatory eyes moved to the driver’s seat, where Gage was leaning to the left as he turned the wheel to the left. She noticed he tended to move his body with the wheel. It was driving her crazy.

Yes, both of these people need to be exorcized. Tonight and forever.

If she hadn’t been so busy protecting Coco from that asshole Todd, Veda would’ve been focused on
killing
that asshole Todd. A vial of poison would’ve been working its way through his veins right then, following him all the way home. He’d have closed his eyes that night and never opened them again.

Veda cut a look at Coco. So sweet. So adorable. So impossible not to protect.

Damn her.

“Coco Puffs,” Gage called, pulling the car to a stop in front of a mansion on the illustrious side of the hill. It was a boxy white house with all modern finishes, and looked like something out of a
Jetsons
cartoon.

Veda noticed Gage even said ‘Coco Puffs’ differently than Todd. How was it possible for two men to do and say the exact same things, but sound so completely different?

“Do you guys want to come up and hang out a little?” Coco asked, voice hitching.

“I told you this morning. I don’t hang out,” Veda replied. “And now that I’ve been escorted out of a bar by the CEO of our hospital, you know why.”

Coco yanked at her sleeves. “No, totally. I don’t hang out either. I just thought… maybe….”

“Have a good night, Coco,” Veda said.

Coco’s big eyes looked back and forth between Veda and Gage, a small, knowing smile on her face. It wasn’t until Gage turned and met her eyes as well that Coco reached for the door handle.

“Okay… Geez.” Her smile had moved from knowing to full-on suggestive. Veda could almost see the naughty things Coco had her and Gage doing in her mind. “
Good night
,” she purred, amused eyes moving back and forth between them.

Gage waited until Coco had made it to the front door of her family’s home, stepped in, and waved at them, ensuring she was okay. Then he changed gears and pulled onto the road, engine roaring along the quiet streets.

Silence fell. Veda knew this was where normal people would jump in and try to fill the quiet for fear of being uncomfortable, but she’d never been that kind of person. It wasn’t the silence that made her uncomfortable, but the talking.

“Veda. What’s your address?”

Veda snapped her eyes to Gage. “How do you know my name?” She’d never told him, and she was sure Coco hadn’t said it for the entire drive.

A smile lifted his lips but he didn’t look at her, leaning his own elbow on the open window and resting his head on his hand as he navigated the streets. “I know every employee who works for my hospital, Miss Veda Gabriella Vandyke.” He met her eyes. “Miss First Year Anesthesiologist Resident. Miss Salutatorian at Stanford.” He grinned. “Miss Party Crasher. Who do you think signed your employment contract?”

“What a stalker.” Veda studied his profile when he turned away with a smile. That chiseled jaw. It seemed to flex when he realized she was looking.

“Just can’t keep your eyes off me,” he whispered.

“Oh, stop.” Veda snapped her eyes away, focusing on the road. Still, even keeping her eyes off him, she couldn’t ignore her body, humming under the vibration of the engine that made the leather seats rumble. She crossed her legs, trying to ignore it, but the squeeze of her thighs only put more friction on her clit, a fire blazing through her that stole her breath. Desperate for any distraction from the strange things her body was doing, she spoke. “And I should’ve
been Valedictorian, by the way. I lost out to Danny Chung, who was notorious for outsourcing his thesis papers to ghostwriters, by a fourth of a point. I was
robbed
.
So thanks for bringing that up.”

He chuckled. The bass of his laugh entered her body and sent it rolling with debilitating warmth from head to toe. Veda tightened her crossed thighs, not to fight the ache in her clit but to address it, hoping a little attention would help it die down.

“I’m on Decatur Boulevard, between Court and 6
th
,” she said, desperate to get home and away from this person forever. Coco would be more difficult to get rid of, since they worked together, but Veda was sure she could be done with Gage tonight. Coco had already said he was only at the hospital every few months, just to check in, and he’d already checked in that morning; therefore, Veda was confident she’d never have to see him again. She’d never have to endure the baffling loss of focus, the tightness in her bones, and the shortness of breath she couldn’t explain whenever she was in his presence.

“How was your first day at work?” He leaned back in his seat when he made it to a stoplight, shooting her a look. When she returned his gaze, his chest swelled, eyes growing darker. “Besides avoiding me like the plague, I mean. Did the surgeons treat you well?”

Veda thought up an answer that would help her remain detached.

“Where’s your fiancée?” left her lips instead, before she could even think to stop it.

He looked away, stroking his beard. “Not here.” His hooded eyes reclaimed hers.

“Why not?”

“She hates my friends.”

“I’m
shocked
.”

He smirked, pulling off when the light turned green.

Veda didn’t miss how slowly he was moving that Phantom. She knew how fast the bad boy could go. For a young man with a lead foot, that growling engine was heaven on Earth, but he was driving like somebody’s grandpa.
Could he speed it up already?
She clenched her crossed thighs.

“Todd can be a real asshole,” Gage said. “But I’ve known him for as long as I’ve been alive, and he’s good at the core.”

Veda snickered, feeling his eyes burning the side of her face. Whatever. No point in arguing with him.

As they neared her neighborhood, she pointed to an approaching corner. “I know a shortcut. Just take a right here….”

He blazed past that corner without even looking.

Veda shot him a stunned expression.

His smile grew. “Are you new in town?”

She turned to watch her shortcut—her freedom—breezing by. Slumping back into her seat, she swallowed a moan as her thumping heart seemed to relocate to her center, pumping with more fervor every second, becoming impossible to ignore. “I was born here. Raised on the hill. I left during senior year.”

“From the hill to anesthesiologist.” He smiled at her. “Good for you.”

“Sometimes I wonder if I’m crazy. The plan was to get the hell out of Shadow Rock and never look back, but….”
Things to do, people to kill
. She smiled at her thoughts.

“Everyone wants to leave… until they leave.” He came to another stoplight and met her eyes. “Something about this island. It gets in your blood.” His gaze fell to her lips. “You don’t even know it until it’s already shooting through your veins and attacking your nervous system.”

Veda licked her lips, not sure if he was talking about Shadow Rock or
himself.
“How would your fiancée feel if she knew I was in your car?”

He looked away. “My fiancée doesn’t dictate my life.”

Veda didn’t miss the clip in his voice. Was it anger? Guilt? The more sadistic part of her yearned to flick at it.  To aggravate whatever fire went ablaze inside him whenever she brought up his fiancée, but she gave him a break. No need to torture someone she was never going to see again. Where was the fun in that, if she couldn’t witness the aftermath?

“Does your family still live here?” he asked.

“My parents left a few years after I went to college.”

He frowned. “Didn’t you say you left senior year? They didn’t go with you?”

The air left Veda’s lungs. She pointed a trembling finger to another corner. “Shortcut. Make a right.”

Gage breezed past that corner.

And it finally occurred to her. “Am I being held hostage?”

He gripped the steering wheel. “Are you seeing anybody?”

She threw him a horrified look. “Seriously?”

“Just an innocent question.”

“Innocent?”

“Innocent conversation….”

Veda drank in his smiling profile, giving herself permission to enjoy him one last time. Her eyes ran his body. Those arms, her favorite part of him, flexing as he pressed his palm into the steering wheel and finally made a right-hand turn. Those long, muscled legs, straining hard against his slacks, damn near resting on the dashboard, even though he’d pushed his seat as far back as it could go. His chest, well-defined beneath his clinging shirt, rising and falling a little faster than normal.

When he put the car in park, Veda’s shocked eyes flew to the windshield.

They were at her apartment already?

Gage pulled his keys from the ignition, killing the engine, never moving his eyes from hers. “I’ll walk you up.”

Veda stumbled out of the car on wobbly legs. Were her knees seriously shaking?

Seriously?

When he circled the car and placed a hand on the small of her back, it shocked her so badly she nearly leapt out of her shoes. He kept it there for the entire walk to her door, and she finally accepted that, if tonight was going to be the last time she saw him, she’d have to make it count.

She felt the warmth of his body close behind her as she put her keys in the door of her place. She only made it halfway into unlocking it before she turned on her heel.

Yep, there he was, way too close, his heaving chest mere inches away. She pasted her back against the door, slapping her hands on it, digging her nails in to keep them from going someplace they didn’t belong.

“Listen,” she gasped when he took a step closer. He was already in spit-swapping distance, so that one step sent her slamming back against the door she was already glued to, lifting her eyes to his.

“Can I have your phone number?” he whispered.

She swallowed thickly. “I thought you knew everything about the employees in your hospital? Surely if you wanted my phone number—”

“I want it from you.”

“You’re engaged.”

He searched her eyes. She saw the moment his pupils expanded, growing to twice their size when his gaze fell to her lips and he watched her lick them.

“Look,” she said, again. “Whatever this is between us… This weird… itchy thing….”

“This….” He brushed the backs of his fingers down her arm, eyebrows pulling, a small smile lacing his face. “
Itchy thing
?”

“Let’s just give it a good scratch and be done with it forever, huh?” Frankly, it was utterly unacceptable, whatever animal had come to life between them. Whatever animal tightened her nipples with one glance, made her pussy pulse with one touch, filled her mouth with moisture from an undeniable need to sample every pulsating muscle on his body, threatening to drown her in her own carnal desire. Her eyes traveled those arms, flexing with as much need as his jaw, his physical battle just as visibly strenuous as hers.

As his eyes left a blaze on every part of her they touched, her walls squeezed, and she could feel how wet she was.

Yes, she needed to get this spit-shined rich boy out of her system.

Tonight and forever.

She turned to the door of her apartment, gasping when he was on her in the next instant, the tips of his fingers brushing her hips. His ragged breath came heavier, more strained by the second. She knew if she stepped back his hardness would meet her halfway, pushing into the folds of her ass. By some miracle she managed to get her front door unlocked, fingers quaking like a seismic shift.