Page 58 of King of Liars

I gripped at my chest, pressing against it, hating the sting I’d been left with, the one that felt as though it had always been there, would always be there. As my thoughts scrambled, I clung to my chest and howled like some kind of animal, with the same passion as I might have had during a regular fuck session with King and the knights.

I thought I heard another knock.

Jesus, was I really hallucinating because of how badly I wanted it not to be over with Aiden?

My beautiful Boss.

The sound must’ve come from the unit across the hall, I just knew it. Or perhaps I’d kicked my bed and mistaken the noise as being from where I wished it’d been from.

I took deep breaths, waiting on the floor, when I heard the sound a third time.

That time there was no doubt it was the front door, so it was only a matter of reminding myself that it could be anyone—anyone other than Aiden. I swung by the bathroom briefly, checked my face, which was red from bawling like a fucking baby.

I despised myself, thought of how much my dad would have hated me for being so fucking weak. But I sucked it up and headed through the dark to the door when the knock came yet again.

Was it my imagination, or did it sound like Aiden’s knock?

Stop—stop it!

I opened the door, and Aiden stood on the other side, in only his jeans and shoes, glancing around uneasily.

My jaw trembled.

He’d come.

He’d really fucking come. But I couldn’t accept it fully. No. It was some mistake. He was being stupid.

“Took me a sec. Had to walk since my ride bailed on me.” He sounded slightly annoyed, even though I knew he couldn’t really have been since he’d shown up at my door.

“You can’t be here. King will exile you if he finds out.”

“King’s already thrown me out.”

“What?”

“I wasn’t going to stay with that prick after what he did to you.”

“You left?” I asked, still stuck on the thing that would have been so hard—no, impossible—for either of us to have done at one point.

Aiden rushed past the threshold and stole a kiss.

In typical Aiden fashion, he took charge, guiding me back against a nearby wall, sealing his lips on mine, his tongue pushing into my mouth.

“Of course…I fucking…left,” he said between kisses. “After what he did to you…how he hurt you…”

“Shut up and keep kissing me.”

I wanted to talk to him about everything that had gone down, but considering just moments before I figured I might never have another chance to feel him against me, I needed this experience. We scrambled into the bedroom, where we took care of our brief deprivation of each other, claiming each other the way we had been doing for the past few months. We let it drag on that night, neither of us wanting the experience to come to an end.

No, it couldn’t end.

I wanted to fuck until I forgot entirely about King and the knights, until there was only Aiden…and in one moment at the height of my climax, it was there and real, but as soon as it ripped through me, the cruel reality of what had transpired in King’s basement came racing back.

I lay beside Aiden, little space between us as he rolled onto his side, mirroring my position. I could tell by the apprehension on his expression that he was trying to gauge where I was at with everything that had happened.

“I wish I were as strong as you were,” I said. “To walk away.”

“I can’t say I’m much stronger, since I wouldn’t have been able to do it if you hadn’t been ‘exiled’ by King.”

---