Page 46 of Forsaken Desire
“Your behavior with Cierra and Alex?—”
“Enough,” Lucian growled, his voice sharp. His mom clamped her lips shut, and her eyes lowered.
Henry’s lips twitched, and he tipped back another glass of champagne, simply watching everything.
“Joey?”
I turned to the familiar voice. One that I genuinely never expected to hear again. Whirling, I met Verity’s gaze. She was dressed in the clothes all the servers wore. White blouse and black slacks. Intricate tattoos of geometric shapes peeked out from her rolled-up sleeves and along her collar.
I wobbled unsteadily to my feet, using the table to stand, and I threw my arms around her.
The familiar smell of cigarettes clung to her hair. It was comforting. I squeezed her around the neck, hard, breathing her in. She was the only human I’d allowed close while in prison, and that was because she’d saved my ass after she’d taken the blame for me getting pulled into a fight.
I’d just gotten out of isolation, and they would have tossed me in for another thirty days if not for her.
When I pulled away from her, my hair snagged on her eyebrow piercing. She easily and skillfully untangled it. Verity’sgaze lifted to Lucian, who’d stood at some point. He pressed against my back, the tension in his body seeping into me.
“I have to get back to work, but give me your number and we can catch up.”
I smoothed my hands down my dress to get rid of the dampness, then grabbed my cell phone from my clutch.
Verity rattled off the number, and I texted it to myself.
Lucian’s palm squeezed my hip.
Verity’s eyebrow went up, and she scanned my mate analytically.
“Got yourself a boyfriend, huh?” She smiled. I pressed my lips together, and she laughed.
“Pst!” A waiter waved at her insistently.
“Fuck, I have to go, but we’ll talk soon. Don’t forget to call me.”
I watched her shuffle away as if in a trance. It wasn’t until Lucian tugged me by the waist that I snapped out of it, shoving my phone back in the bag.
“What an . . . interesting individual,” Elain sniffed, lifting her chin. The haughtiness rubbed me the wrong way. I hated how she stared at her.
“She really is. And she’s a fantastic artist. She did my tattoo.”
“A tattoo,” Elain’s eyebrows raised. “How . . . interesting.”
Cierra snickered and raised an eyebrow at me.
I was so taken aback, I could only blink. What did someone say to someone so utterly out of touch with reality? She lived on her perfect pedestal, not worrying while we struggled to make ends meet?—
The face of a scruffy middle-aged man flashed across my thoughts. A sharp pain stabbed my temple. I pressed my hand against the throbbing point, trying not to make a sound.
Henry caught my eye with a quizzical look.
“You all right, young lady?” he asked. The surprise of it allowed me to swallow down my nausea.
All these people weren’t the type I wanted to impress. Especially Cierra and Elain who continued to look at me like I was shit smeared under their shoe.
I’d give them something to be dicks over.
“Lucian’s never liked body ink—” Cierra offered, her smile catty.
“Prison gets monotonous,” I spat my truth out, cutting Cierra off.
