Page 91 of Devilish Ink

My sobs lessened as Liam ran his hands over the back of my head, smoothing the hair disturbed by my nightmare.

It was just a nightmare.

“Ry…” Liam whispered.

Only a nightmare.

“Ry…”

“It wasn’t just a nightmare,” I blurted out.

Liam’s fingers stilled. I thought his heart followed.

I laid a palm against his bare chest. Willed him to breathe. Willed him to stay with me.

Liam shifted so that he could study my face. He looked so young in that moment.

I wondered what it would have been like, had I had him allthose years ago. Someone I felt I could trust. Someone I felt I could…share my darkness with.

“Tell me,” Liam whispered, as if he could read my very thoughts.

“I was fairly young when I discovered I liked it…a little rough,” I said, noticing that my heart was no longer skipping painfully. “But I was old enough to know to be smart about it. To know that I wanted it from the right person. Someone I trusted. And connected with. Because that’s what it was always about for me. That trust.”

My fingers played at Liam’s collarbone.

I continued, “I made a profile on a BDSM site. To find people who were interested in that kind of thing, too. I made sure it didn’t have my real name or anything like that. Nothing that would let anyone find me. I vetted guys before meeting up. It was all fine for so long.”

I fell into silence remembering how the night seemed to press down on my shoulders in that fateful moment. It felt so heavy. Like it had fingers to dig into my skin.

“Ry?” Liam asked softly.

I blinked and found his eyes searching mine. I swallowed down the emotion that was threatening to choke me.

And I began to speak.

He’d been charming. He’d done all the gentlemanly things at The White Room. I’d enjoyed him sharing it with me, the kind of exclusive club for millionaires that I could never dream of stepping inside otherwise.

He’d been thoughtful enough to select the table with the best view overlooking the city. We laughed over a fantastic meal with exquisite service. And, I reminded myself, hehadbeen charming.

So why couldn’t I shake the unsettling feeling in my stomach.

“Nightcap at my place?” he asked.

I knew the warning signs like the back of my hand. As he waited for my response while the valet fetched his car, I went through them.

Balor checked out. It was just the billionaire thing, I told myself.

That was the reason he seemed to be a little too natural, a little too casual, a little too…above it all. The distant, almost vacant look I caught a few times while we waited for a cocktail or the next course, champagne with dessert.

When you have an unfathomable amount of money, life itself must become slightly unfathomable.

He hadn’t done anything that remotely came close to crossing a line. And he was interested in what I was interested in.

“A nightcap would be lovely,” I said.

Balor didn’t touch me in the car on the way to his mansion. In fact, he hardly looked at me. And he did not speak.

To reassure myself, I glanced at him from time to time. But whenever I thought I saw that blank, almost dead look, he blinked and I saw a normal guy.

---