Page 135 of Loving the Liar

I become so desperate I’m shaking from the inside out, begging for him to end the suffering.

“Please, please, please,” I pant.

His thrusts accelerate, pushing so deep inside it feels like he’s pressing against my lungs. I can’t breathe, I can’t move, but I can feel every sensation and emotion he chooses. The despair, the fullness, the tingling, the helplessness.

He stops, buried to the hilt inside me, and with a husky voice, he murmurs, “Come.”

He’s not even moving when I convulse around him. And he only starts again when I’m trembling and whimpering from ecstasy. He fucks me ruthlessly, pressing my body against the metal and making me scream as he releases inside me.

It’s only when he pulls out and I hear him talk to the rest of the room that I remember we have an audience.

“I think she learned the only thing she’s good for,” he says simply.

The shame engulfs me, pulling me under, and those tears I’ve held back finally roll down my cheeks. For a second there, he made me forget what this really was.

But I’m glad he said something. And it’s a good thing he stays cold and walks out of the room with everyone else without even helping me out the the restraints. It’s a wake-up call that he doesn’t take care of me and that instead another Aphrodite comes to help me out.

Because all of this is a reminder that I can’t trust this man. And Megan’s words become clearer. After all, if I can’t trust him, why should I believe any good intention he had toward me wasn’t some sort of manipulation to get me wherever he wants me to be? Megan could be right. Christopher Murray has had a plan for me for a long time, and I’m the stupid girl who played right into his hand.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Ella

Lose You To Love Me - Selena Gomez

Iwalk through the main hallway on the first floor of the temple. I’m back in my regular clothes, looking as if nothing has happened to me. Only I can feel it. The bruise on my neck from when they stabbed me with a needle, the pain at the backs of my thighs, the feeling of Chris inside me. But I walk with my head high, going to the room where the men have drinks and chat together. They have the most expensive whiskeys, dress in the finest clothes, but still can’t find it in themselves to treat women like anything more than whatever they can use them for. A wife. A whore.

I don’t even really know what I’m going to do. My brain feels like cotton, and everything is blurry. I just want to go in there and insult them, hit them, claw at their faces until they understand the physical sensation of how they’re making me feel inside.

I’m about to burst into the room, when someone comes out. Black hair to his neck, eyes as glacial as his father’s, Achilles doesn’t hide his surprise when he sees me, his eyebrows crunching together.

“Were you about to walk into the Shadows’ library?”

“I was,” I answer sternly.

“Ella, you’re not allowed.” He looks around, making sure no one sees us, and wraps an arm around my shoulders. “You should go home. Let me get a chauffeur to drive you back to your house.”

“You’re in the library and you’re not even a full member yet.”

“My dad is Zeus. I get away with a lot of things I shouldn’t.”

I don’t move when he nudges me toward the front door.

“I’m not leaving. Where’s Chris?”

“In there.” He nods toward the room behind him. “Trying to hold himself back from killing all the men who are congratulating him for what he did. Let him play the part. He’ll meet you at your house later.”

I’m not falling for that shit again of Chris pretending he’s playing a part to the Circle when he hurts me. This is who he is.

When he tries to walk me to the door again, I get out of his hold.

“Were you in that room? The altar?” I ask, practically panting from anger. If he was, I’ll never be able to look at him again. I don’t even think I’ll be able to be friends with him anymore.

“Of course not,” he says right away. “The first thing I did when I heard about it was drive here to convince my dad to let you go. I still thought I had a chance to stop this when he came back up from the altar. I was…too late.”

I take in what he says, but I don’t know what he expects from me. A trophy for attempting to not let his dad and other Shadows abuse me in a torture room?

“Do you even know what he did to me in there?” I rasp, swallowing harshly as my eyes water once again.

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