Page 36 of Beautiful Liar

Oh, I must’ve said the ass bit out loud. I felt him clean me up with a warm cloth before I passed out and woke up on the edge of a nightmare I couldn’t remember. My heart beating wildly in my chest, I scanned the room. The shadows played with my mind. Especially the one on my chair. It looked wrong. Darker and solidly shaped like a person. Staring at me.

“Kieran?” I heard the doubt in my voice.

The shadow approached. When he stood just inches from the bed, I got a good look at the eyes behind a thick layer of paint. Not Kieran. Luca.

He was dressed in all black. Blended with the darkness around him. His face was painted like a calavera without the pop of color. All of it black and white. His eyes trailed the length of my body. It’s when I realized I was completely naked. Some time during the night, I’d kicked out of the blankets. My body exposed to him. His attention remained on my tattoo of La Santa Muerte. It was as if we were linked somehow in death. Our bodies marked. His face. My chest.

“What are you doing here?” I finally asked in a hoarse whisper.

He tossed something at me, and I didn’t even have time to move away. Realizing my terror, he smiled revealing perfect teeth. Though his incisors were sharp and longer. I picked up the leather, unable to really see it in the dark. “What is this?”

I lifted my eyes, but he was gone. Just gone.

With my heart in my throat, I scrambled out of bed and turned on the lights. Had it not been for the leather belt still on my bed, I would’ve thought I dreamt him.

No, the leather on my bed was too small to be a belt. I lifted it up, ran my fingers along the beautiful intricate carvings on the surface and the silver buckle with a lock. My stomach twisted into knots as I realized what I had in my hand. It wasn’t a belt. It was a collar.

Chapter Fifteen

Tomás

My bedroom window faced the backyard and for reasons I couldn’t say, I looked out. Luca stood under the artificial light, bathed in a yellowish hue surrounded by shadows. Covered in black from head to toe, he looked like a shadow himself. Was he even really there?

He moved out of the light and for a moment I thought he turned into a wisp of smoke and floated away. But when my eyes adjusted to the darkness surrounding the yard, I caught sight of two twinkling eyes looking up at me. Waiting expectantly. The slight cock to his head questioning.Are you coming, or not?He wanted me to follow him.

I hated puzzles because I had no patience putting them together. Figuring shit on my own was hard. I missed clues. The answer could hit me upside the head and I’d still not get it. But I loved the chase for it, the thrill of doing something risky. Luca Mancini wanted me to chase him. A dangerous, alluring puzzle piece that hit all my buttons. I had lived for this shit when I ran with La Sagrada Sangre. At a moment’s notice, they’d call and we’d ride. My blood sang with anticipation. The want to chase that high I’d missed since I’d been here. My sensible side, a small part of my brain, warned me not to follow the man. But another, larger part was too curious to say no.

Fuck it.

I pulled on a pair of sweats, a hoodie with no t-shirt underneath, and shoes with no socks and I sprinted out of the house. The backyard was empty, but I caught a dark shape moving into the path. Yeah, the fucker wanted me to follow. This was a bad idea. The creep was in my room, stalking me. With creepy paint on his face. Not a good sign that he had all his marbles, but I still found my legs moving, following him. Theearly morning skies awaited the sun. The campus eerily silent. The ground hard from the cold that lingered in this part of the world. A subtle glow punctured the darkness like a will-o’-the-wisp. Nick had told me a scary story about the will-o’-the-wisp. They often lured lost travelers to their doom. Nick had a way of scaring the shit out of me. I was easy to scare when I’d been a kid. Now, I was too damn curious for my own good. Not smart enough to know not to follow the freaky light controlled by the freaky painted assassin.

I heard a snap and the light dropped to the floor.

A glowstick. Luca was lighting my way.

I followed.

Luca moved liked he belonged among the shadows, avoiding the shafts of moonlight breaking between the trees. He knew I followed so he only revealed himself whenever he cracked the light stick and dropped it on the ground to light my way. After several minutes of walking, I heard the lake nearby. The sound of the soft eddies gave me a reference to our destination. We were heading toward the chapel. Once I broke the clearing and entered the shadow of the chapel, I stopped. Luca stood with his back to me so still, he could’ve been a stone statue. The buzzing under my skin only intensified as I waited to see how this would play out. If he’d meant to kill me, he could’ve done it as I slept in my room. He didn’t have to bring me out here. Unless he planned something worse. I didn’t want to think about the something worse. The something worse would be bad.

I’d never claim to be the best judge of character, but Luca didn’t seem like a threat. Could he be? Yeah, hell, yeah. But there was something else to him. In truth, Luca reminded me of Kieran if Kieran had gone a little bit more wacko than he already was. I’d always separated Kieran’s sides in my head. His possessive side, his OCD side, the side of him that gave me control, the side of him that took control. The killer, the lover.We all had many sides of ourselves we showed when we needed to. When I’d met Luca at the theatre building, he felt dangerous. A predator out on a hunt. But now, with this paint, I felt as if he were searching for answers and he believed I had them.

He pulled something out of his hoodie, unfolded it and dropped it on the ground next to his feet with a glow stick. Then he disappeared around the chapel.

My stomach twisted. I couldn’t tell if it was out of anticipation or curiosity. Both, most likely. This was a clue, and I couldn’t just ignore it. Even if it could quite possibly be the death of me. I was the idiot who looked out whenever I heard gunshots, the one who wanted to know why the cops were on the corner, lights flashing.

Yeah. Me. The idiot.

I approached the glowstick and dropped down to pick up the clue. As soon as the dim blue glow cast a discolored aura over the picture in my hand I felt as if someone had poured ice cold water over me. I should’ve gone with my first instincts and ran. This wasn’t a clue to a puzzle. This was the puzzle. Somehow, Luca had gotten the same picture Cillian had when he took me. The picture of me and Kieran here at the chapel the night we had first kissed.

Luca knew.

A shadow of movement crossed my field of vision. Before I could prepare for the onslaught, I was slammed into the brick wall. My back hit it hard, forcing air out of my lungs. The shock of the attack took the fight out of me. I dropped both the picture and the glowstick. Luca leaned his body against mine, cupping my throat. A similar pose of me and Kieran in the picture. Except in that pose, we were both lusting for each other. Something that this insane motherfucker in front of me couldn’t duplicate.

Luca was the same height as Kieran. His body more fluid, leaner than Kieran’s, but just as strong. His thumb moved backand forth across my pulse making me very aware of my own mortality. He had his other hand beside my head, pinning me in place. I was so shocked, I couldn’t move. His whiskey-colored eyes so fucking filled with curiosity. And he did the head cock thing again. I’m sure he didn’t even realize he looked so fucking childish when he did it. A kid trying to figure out how to put the puzzle pieces back together.

Those eyes lowered to my lips and my cock twitched. Motherfucker. My heart slammed against my ribcage. I’m sure he felt it through the fabric of the hoodie. My pulse erratic against his thumb. It wasn’t desire. It was fear. But fear of what? Luca’s touch?

Liking it?

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