Wretched (Never After Series)(16)

Now it’s me who steps forward, my breath blowing softly on the top of her head.

Goddamn, she’s short.

She cranes her neck to meet my gaze, and I suck in a deep breath when she does.

I thought at first that I missed the striking blue of her eyes from the night we met, but this close, the dark browns swirl with yellow and a dash of green creating a kaleidoscope of color so deep and fucking beautiful they suck me in and drag me under like quicksand.

My cock hardens.

No. I’d give anything to go back to those basic blues.

“And what a delicious taste it was,” I rasp.

She sneers. “You’re a pig.”

Leaning down, my mouth grazes against her ear. “I’ve never claimed to be a gentleman, and I won’t apologize for lying when it ended with you shaking around my cock.”

“Did I?” She tilts her head. “I don’t remember.”

I grin. “Now who’s lying?”

She hums, bringing up her fingers and smoothing them down the opening of my jacket. I stare at the movement, my hands clenching into fists to keep from reaching out and dragging her into me. To remind her just how much she loved how I made her feel.

“And this is the new job you’re starting?” she murmurs, keeping her attention on every place she touches. “Working with my dad?”

“Just a new venture,” I murmur. “Broadening my horizons. I didn’t know he was your dad.”

Her head tilts, as though she’s taking in what I say and letting it sink into her brain, slotting it away to use against me later.

I’ve never met anyone quite like her.

She’s unnerving in a type of way that makes your skin crawl. She’d be a fantastic interrogator.

Her fingers wrap around my jacket and she rises up on her tiptoes, dragging me down until her lips skate across my jaw. “Nicholas. Brayden. Whatever the fuck your name is… stay the hell away from me and stay the hell away from my family. You aren’t welcome here.”

She drops her hold and pushes me roughly before turning around and walking away.





8





EVELINE





Oscar Norman, the mayor of Emerald, is a flashy man who spends more time worried about lining his pockets than he does about his morals. I first met him when I was ten years old and Nessa had him over for steak dinner and a “chat.”

I, being the kid I was at the time, thought he was her boyfriend. But I should have known better because Nessa never did anything without just cause, and soon enough the Westerly name was bankrolling Oscar’s political science degree. Over the years, I would watch with rapt attention while she pulled his strings like a marionette, funneling him down the narrow avenues she wanted him to take, until one day, he became a household name.

Exactly like she wanted him to be.

I assumed his loyalty to Nessa was just as strong as mine. They seemed to have a bond, and she’s the reason he was worth a damn at all. But I soon realized what a foolish notion that was after she died on his boat and he didn’t even show up to her funeral.

Cut off all ties with us and hasn’t come back around since.

Oscar Norman is a fraud, hiding behind a curtain of debauchery while portraying the image of a morally upstanding family man. And as I watch him being bent over his desk while the city commissioner rams a cock up his ass, that’s never been more obvious.

“Can you turn that shit down?” Cody scrunches his nose, reaching beside his triple monitor computer and grabbing his noise-canceling headphones. “Not all of us want to hear the men running our city moaning like stuck pigs.”

I smirk, tossing a piece of popcorn into my mouth as I keep my eyes on the screen. “Please. They wouldn’t know how to run this city if their lives depended on it.”

He chuckles, running a hand through his dirty-blond locks. “You’ve got a point.”

“Hey,” I say, never taking my eyes from the screen. “Can you do me a favor?”

“You mean another one?” he asks, spinning in his desk chair to face me. “You know, rigging a hidden camera in a government official’s office isn’t exactly easy. A thanks would be nice.”

I nod. “Thank you. I need you to look into someone.”

He pushes up his wire-framed glasses as he sits forward in his seat, placing his elbows on his knees. “Color me interested. Who?”

My insides twist, and the fact my body reacts so viscerally to even the thought of Brayden Walsh pisses me off. I crack my neck, trying to alleviate the tension.

A slow smile creeps along Cody’s face. “Someone’s got you fucked up.”

I narrow my eyes. “Someone’s annoyed me, if that’s what you mean, and I’m trying to decide whether or not to kill him.”

His grin grows larger and with it so does my irritation until it’s a living, breathing, snarling thing inside me. “Do me a favor?” I snap. “Stop psychoanalyzing and stick to what you know.”

Cody’s face drops. “God, you’re such a bitch.”

Grinning, I pop another piece of popcorn in my mouth and shrug.

“You have serious issues, babe,” he says just as a long groan sounds from the computer in front of me.

Both of us divert our attention back to the screen, watching as our dear mayor stands up from his precarious position, semen dripping out of his ass and down his thigh.