Page 50 of Ever Dark

I don’t like the feel of his skin against mine. He’s good-looking, charming, and exactly the type of guy I would take home from a bar in Raven’s Gate. So why am I annoyed by the gesture?

The three of them crowd in around me as my head starts tospin from the booze. “One more, and then I’m heading home as well, boys.”

“Come on. Don’t be like that. Stay and party with us,” jock number two pleads as he shoves one of his tequila shots toward me.

I down my last shot instead, wincing as the bourbon stings my throat. I’m not a big tequila fan either. “Thank you for the offer, but….”

My focus is pulled away when I spothimin my periphery. No, not just spot. When Ifeelhis eyes on me. Fuck. My pulse ticks up, and my palms sweat under the dark and twisted heat of his gaze.Draven fucking Blackwell.

I’ll be fucking damned if I let him think he’s the reason I leave. He does not get to have that power over me.I can’t let him.

I flash the jocks a seductive grin. “Sure, why not? Let’s party.”

DRAVEN

His hand is on her back. Why the fuck is his fucking hand on her fucking back?

Murder moves to the top of my list tonight.

I shoot off a text to Bones and Aries while I wait for Duff to pour me a gin, my fingers are shaking as I type. If Mia thinks she can run aroundmytown doing whatever she wants, she’s sorely mistaken. As if our little party in the woods didn’t make my message clear enough. It’s time I remind her again.

I grab my glass and stalk toward my dark little temptress.

Her eyelids flutter when she stares up at me, her throat bobbing as she tries to swallow down her nerves.

I snatch the shot of tequila from her hand before she can take a sip and set it on the edge of the pool table. “You’re really trying to earn your nickname, aren’t you, Trouble?”

She edges away from the big dumb-looking oaf with his hand on her back. “What I do is none of your business, Draven.”

Everything in this town is my business.She’ll learn. “Youshould be home signing papers and packing, not prancing around like a whore.”

“Whoa, watch your mouth. Where I come from, we don’t talk to women like that,” the blond idiot interjects.

If I could murder him with my mind, I would. But I’m going to enjoy doing it with my bare hands instead. “Well, maybe you should go back to where you’re from. This is Ever Graves, and here we don’t meddle in business that doesn’t concern us.”

The oaf side-eyes Mia. “Is this your boyfriend or something?”

She snort laughs out loud. “Um, no. He is whatever the opposite of a boyfriend is.”

I grip the edge of the pool table. “I don’t care what you call me, Mia. But as long as you live in that house,in this town, you will have me breathing down your neck. Keep pushing me, and you’ll see the full extent of my wrath.”

Her eyes darken, but she licks her lips. There’s a slight twitch in her jaw, a telling tick that shows me how her glands salivate for me. “Go fuck yourself, Draven.”

Okay, this is how we’re playing it? I chuckle and reach for her arm. “You’ve had too much to drink. Time to go home.”

Douchebag intercepts me.

“She says she’s not with you, bro.” He holds his pool stick up, waving it at me like he’s declaring it a weapon.

“I’m not your bro. But because you’re not from here, I’ll let it slide. This has nothing to do with you, so I suggest you go back to your buddies over there and have another round on me.” I can sometimes be rational when provoked. But my fuse is fucking short.

He puffs out his chest and laughs. He looks me up and down, sizing me up. This poor bastard assumes because he’s bigger than me that it’s going to be an unfair fight. And it will be. For him.

Mia rolls her eyes. “You can’t throw money at everything you want to go away, Draven. Leave me alone and let me have some fun for once.”

“No means no,bro,” the douchebag drawls.

Fuck, diplomacy. I’m going to kill him.

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