Page 2 of Now You're Mine

Breezing past the gathering crowd, I grab everything I’d thrown out the window and toss it all into one large pile, then I douse it all with the Everclear. With a smile on my lips, I strike a few matches and toss them into the pile of clothes and electronics…

CHAPTER TWO

Roman

I’m fucking shook.

I knew Lux would discover the truth eventually. And despite my fantasies about living happily ever after, her reaction was inevitable. Fuck, I’d be pissed if I were her, too.

In the end, it took both Christian and Lucas to pull her off me, and she was still swinging, screaming obscenities, calling me a cunt, and everything in between.

She’s not wrong.

Iama cunt. I manipulated her to get what I wanted. I pushed past her boundaries to satisfy my own needs. I’d had my reasons, of course, but none of that matters now. She’s gone, and whatever purgatory her absence creates is what I deserve.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen.

If I’d done my job right, then I would have seduced her, convinced her to retract her statement without revealing who I was, and then broken up with her. Catch and release. Easy.

What Ihadn’tplanned on was falling in love with her. Now that she’s out of my reach, I can admit that.

What surprises me is how fucking clever she is, playing me at my own game and hiring a private investigator to sift through the lies and illusions I’d created.

Shit.

I can’t help but wonder what other secrets she managed to uncover. Not that it really matters now. She despises me, as she should, and I doubt she’ll ever look me in the eyes again.

“Fuck, man,” Lucas says, his gaze scanning over the destruction Lux left in her wake. There’s paper, shards of porcelain, and glass everywhere. It looks like a tornado ripped through the study—a tornado of my own stupidity.

After Lucas and Christian pulled her off me, she’d screamed until she was out of breath, then left. God only knows where she went, and I try to convince myself it isn’t my business.

But everything about Lux is my fucking business.

“Do you know where she went?” I ask, putting a hand to my face to see if she drew blood. There’s a scratch under my eye, and when I pull my hand away, there’s blood coating my fingers.

It’s what you deserve.

Coward.

My dad’s voice floats like a specter inside my head, telling me all the things I already know. What’s worse, is now Lux knows them, too.

“She went upstairs,” Lucas says, plopping down into one of the wing chairs. “I asked Wyn to check on her.”

Am I imagining it, or is Lucas always looking for an excuse to talk to Wyn? Nothing can happen between them though, because she’s dating his cousin, Gabriel. And there’s no way Lucas would make a move on his cousin’s chick.

“Thanks.” I grab a tissue from the desk and hold it to the scratch on my face.

Christian shakes his head and laughs. “Damn, Lux is a lot stronger than she looks. TookbothLucas and me to pull her off you.”

“I was afraid she’d take your fucking head off,” Lucas says to me.

Jackson leans against the desk, arms crossed over his chest. “Well, it’s done and over with now. All we can do is move forward.”

There is an odd relief that comes from Lux knowing the truth. But that relief is quickly tempered by the realization that I’m never going to touch her again, nestle in the warmth of her neck, or see her climax withmyname tumbling from her lips.

“Fuck!” I pound my fist on the desk so hard, that my hand stings from the impact. But the pain confirms I’m awake, and not actually trapped in a fucking nightmare.

There’s a second of silence, then Lucas speaks. “Dude, it had to happen. There was no other way.”

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