Page 109 of Cold-Blooded Creatures
“We don’t want him to run away screaming, do we?” Kali tugged the sleeves of her white cotton shirt down.
Eli looked like he was about to break in half. “How you handle her, I have no idea. She’s driving them all nuts,” he muttered.
That was her. Simply divine.
“If you think we’re mad, you really don’t know Eislyn then.” Tarri plopped down on the bench and gulped down half the contents. “You can’t even begin to guess what’s in her favorite books.”
“Talking about not knowing things.” Kali pointed to the light brown package I had deposited on the bench. “What’s that?”
I sat down next to the paper bag, its opening folded underneath it. A circular shape stood out through the wrinkled material, but not enough to figure out what was inside.
“A gift.” I tickled her waist and used the moment of weakness her squeal provided to pull her down into my lap. “For you.”
“Another one? Is that why you measured me the morning after you gave me that guard?” She reached for the package.
I pushed the brown paper bag out of her reach. “Yes and no.”
“What does that mean?” As impatient as she was, she refrained from tearing into the package, and pleaded, “What’s in the bag?”
“You’ll see in three days.” I manipulated her to straddle me. “And for this, I didn’t need to measure you. The one I had to do that for, you’ll receive in a few months.”
Her face dropped. “That long?”
“Patience. I promise it will be worth it.”
That seemed to placate her as she picked up her water bottle from the bench and unscrewed the cap.
I had full intentions of unraveling why making a bargain—gaining something for a price—or offering a promise always won her over. Every time without a miss.
Tarri nudged Kali with an elbow. “So, ready for your initiation?”
She inhaled water. Coughing, she wiped her chin with the back of her sleeve. “My initiation? What the hell is that?”
“Your tattoo. Ava came up with the name. It’s in three days.” Tarri frowned. “Did nobody tell you?”
“No.” She slapped at my chest with so much indignation it permeated her voice. “You assholes. I’ve been asking about it forweeks.”
I drew an invisible pattern on her right forearm, where the ink would lay. “We drew up a design for you.”
A week after she’d requested the tattoo as one of her conditions, we came up with the idea and invited Dorrian to visit us. Gedeon figured it’d be good for her to spend some time in the compound before we inked her because, once she was, she was ours. Even if she refused it. Even if she tried to run away.
Ours to hurt, to fuck, to worship.
“It’s supposed to be a surprise. But if you want to see it, I’ll show you.” Anything to make her smile.
She thought for a minute. “Okay. But you better make it good,” she said, and surveyed Jayla and Ava sprawled on their backs on the grass, succumbing to autumn’s attack, the first blades drying up, and Eli inspecting the dents in the targets. “Don’t you feel bad that I’m getting the tattoo and you’re not?”
“Not in the slightest. It means Gedeon and this crazy one will think of you even more as theirs, and believe us, none of us want that. We already have to deal with them daily and it would only make it worse.” Ava snorted and laughed at something Jayla had murmured to her.
Tarri propped her chin in her hand, elbow on her thigh. “Jayla said it’s been months since the last celebration here. And I’ve heard quite a few things about them.”
“What’s so special about it?” Kali squirmed in my lap. “It’s just a tattoo.”
“Behave, or I’ll make you come in front of your friends.” Her wriggles made it hard to focus. Or, more like, impossible.
Her cheeks flushed.
Oh, I was doing this. In three days.
