Page 76 of Exodus

He shrugs. “You mean the fiction you’ve made up?”

I shake my head and dodge his next kiss as he chuckles. “I would not do that to you, mon trésor.”

My treasure.

The man just called me his treasure. If it was a slip, he’s not regretting it, nor is he taking it back. In fact, he’s staring right at me without an ounce of second thought. It shouldn’t surprise me, not after the recent events of the weeks we’ve spent together. But every day he sheds more light on parts unknown, and every day I find myself more surprised in the best way.

Words evade me as we stare at the other unspeaking, giving in to our natural gravity, the magnitude far too strong to fight. And now that we’ve acknowledged it, embraced it, fed on it, there’s no turning back.

Because the truth is that I no longer hate Tobias King.

I’m in love with him.

My insatiable need for him flows like lava through my veins, spurring the ache, one I know, soul-deep he’s the only one capable of sating. Seconds pass as he recognizes what I’m not saying. I look up at him, imploring him not to exploit my weakness, but what’s mine, he claims is his own.

“It hurt,” I confess.

“Your dream?”

“Yes.”

He frowns. “Ce qui te blesse, me blesse.” What hurts you, hurts me.

“Do you mean that?”

He places my hand to his chest to let me feel the truth. His heart hammers against my palm as my own heart toes the ledge, carefully peeking down at the endless stories below and weighing the risk before shaking its head at me.

Not yet.

It’s trust we need, and it’s all backward, but that’s our nature, and if I’m honest, it’s all we lack. Well, that and the thousand other secrets he’s not letting me be privy to. Those matter.

So even if my heart is playing masochistic daredevil, my head is doing its best to keep me above water.

He lifts from me, easing my comfort, and in turn, I cradle him between my legs. We’re filthy, in need of another shower, but I wouldn’t trade a second of this stolen moment, because I can feel the reckoning coming. And we’ve put it off for far too long.

“Ask me anything,” he whispers, pressing his thumb into the corner of my mouth before tracing my lip as his cinnamon-coated hair hangs between us. “Ask me, and I’ll tell you.”

“We’re not business anymore,” I whisper, partly a declaration, part question. We’re chest-to-chest as he slowly shakes his head.

“No, we’re not.”

I can’t bring myself to ask him, and so I don’t. Instead, he leans in and presses his lips to mine before he speaks. “You warned me not to fall in love with you. You said you wouldn’t make room for me.”

“You told me you wouldn’t,” I remind him, my soul soaring with his confession.

He leans in close, his nose brushing mine. “Then I guess that makes us both lia—”

“Well, brother, would you take a fucking look at this? Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

Tobias tenses before going ramrod straight, his expression sobering as he pulls himself to kneel a second before I jackknife, my pulse skyrocketing as I turn from where I sit on the ground and lift my gaze to meet the livid eyes of his brother.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Beside Dominic stands Sean, and at the sight of them, I’m thrust into a reality of the worst kind. I stagger to my feet as I dart my disbelieving gaze between the furious eyes of two men who, not long ago, I pledged myself to. Two men I swore I couldn’t, never wanted to live without. Two men who ceased to exist after leaving me begging for them in the street as they drove away.

Dominic’s gaze drips acid, peeling me away layer by layer as he takes the two of us in, dressed in nothing but unmistakable guilt. Sean’s expression is equally as damning, his jaw set, his eyes blistering us both with rage.

Tobias stands and takes a step away, distancing himself from me, but it’s way too late. Trembling, filled with dread, I face them both, speechless, as they collectively batter the two of us from where they stand, their posture threatening in a way I’ve rarely been privy to.

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