Page 107 of Loving the Liar

With a hand on the back of the chair and one grabbing my face—pushing so hard on my cheeks it makes me pout—he forces my head to the side so I’m looking at the Shadow on the floor. He’s groaning from pain, barely conscious.

“Look at what I do to the men who touch you. Forget the fucking act I put on for everyone. That’s the man I become for you,” he says in my ear, his breath a hot caress. “T10 to L1 spinal cord segment. A great place to stab someone.” He thrusts into me hard, and I scream from pleasure. “Not dead.” Thrust. I moan. “Legs paralyzed forever.” Thrust. Fuck. I’m going to come. “I want him to remember the day he touched my girl and what happened to him. I want you to know what happens to people who try to hurt the person I care the most for.”

He pauses, for a second, just to force me to face him.

“Look at me. Look me in the eye. Atta whore. You’re gorgeous.”

When he thrusts into me again, it’s without mercy. And he’s barely holding himself back as he orders, “Come.”

I explode like a thousand fireworks, twisting all the ways I can to feel him deeper inside me. Blinding euphoria swallows me whole, darkening the room, and everything disappears apart from his beautiful eyes on mine. He’s quick to follow me, releasing the desire he’s been holding the whole time he was torturing me.

I’m too lost in a state of bliss to realize I’m letting my ex rope me back in. I’m too taken by our hearts beating in sync to understand this is a mistake. A big mistake.

No one should feel so strongly about a man who just stabbed someone for touching them.

But this is what Chris and I have always been. Artificially sane separately, completely unhinged together.

And God, it feels so good to have that again.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Ella

Please Notice - Christian Leave

We return to Silver Falls before the end of the business weekend. Of course, when they had to retrieve a paralyzed man from the Aphrodite’s room we were in, we had to leave. Chris was informed Zeus would be in contact with him, and I wasn’t told anything. Chris asked for us to be dropped at his Stoneview house, and he’s now driving his own car.

I’ve been silent, refusing to put words to the insane moment we shared, but I’m forced to talk when the anxiety becomes too much.

“Are you going to get in trouble?”

“Don’t worry about me getting in trouble. I can handle the Circle. And you won’t get in trouble either.”

I didn’t ask about me, but he can probably sense my stress. I’ve got enough shit to deal with. I don’t need to add the Circle thinking I was involved in a crime.

“You missed the entrance to the highway,” I point out, as I watch him drive past it.

“I know.”

“Chris,” I insist. “Where are we going?”

“To a place where it can be just the two of us. I want to rest my mind.” His eyes dart to mine before they go back to the road. “Don’t you?”

I nod, and even though he’s not looking at me, I know he can feel it.

“Plus, your stomach is rumbling, and I know what you need right now.”

I automatically wrap my arms around my stomach. My reflex is to hiss that he doesn’t know what I need. But he sounds exhausted, and so am I. For someone who finds comfort in being in control, I know making decisions for me is going back to a safe spot.

So I don’t take it away from him.

“Okay,” I simply say.

I feel his sigh of relief all the way to my bones. It’s been tiring having to fight him every step of the way. Maybe we can just forget about everything for tonight.

He parks in front of a beautiful building I recognize immediately.

“Ms. Barry Dance School,” I murmur. “Talk about a place to rest my mind.”

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