Page 63 of Addicted Lies

“You were the one who made it clear you wanted it to be a secret,” he responds sharply.

I’m gobsmacked. I can’t keep dealing with this head fuckery. He says he doesn’t want anything more with me but then won’t leave me alone. And I can’t deny the fact that I might’ve given mixed signals of my own in the past, but what good is any kind of relationship if we can’t even have an honest conversation? It feels like trying to pull blood out of a stone.

Fuck this. Matthew is at least kind of normal.

Ford’s like a fucking phantom popping out of nowhere.A phantom I’m deeply attracted to.I internally growl.Ah, shut the fuck up.

“It’s a little too late now, wouldn’t you say?” I go to walk into the building, and he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a bracelet.

My jaw drops. “My bracelet. Where was it?” I ask, reaching for it. He pulls it away from my grasp. Fury pumps in my veins. Is this all just a game to him? “Did you take it?” I accuse because I know I was wearing it at the tattoo shop.

“Did you want to fuck him?” he asks as he dangles the bracelet in front of me. I try to grab it, but he’s taller than me and easily holds it out of my reach. “Did you want to fuck him?” he repeats.

“No,” I growl, infuriated. He considers me for a moment longer before lowering the bracelet. I snatch it out of his hand. “You can leave now.”

“I can’t stop thinking about you.”

I’m shocked by the admission, and my mouth opens and closes a few times before I finally find words. “What kind of game are you playing?”

“I’m not playing any game. I’m just telling you the truth.”

“But you won’t date me? Just sex, right?”

“Is that what you want? Dating?” He squirms at the thought, and it’s clear as day that Ford has never dated anyone in his life. And while I might not be the most experienced when it comes to dating, at least I know it’s not a death sentence, the way he’s treating it as.

“I want a man who will claim me without hesitation, Ford.”

“I claim you all the time.”

“Not like that, and you know it,” I bite back.

“Yet you’re the one who wants us to remain as a secret. So you want me to what? Shower you with gifts and dates but remain in the shadows? Sounds likeyou’reusingme, Billie, not the other way around.”

My hands shake because of how furious I am.

“Seems like you’re fine with dishing it but don’t like when you’re called out on your own shit,” he says, his gaze hard.

“Have you met you? You know exactly what it would do to our families if they found out. It might damage everything you’ve built with Eli. My brother will kill you. I’mprotectingyou.”

He scoffs. “I never asked for your protection, Chaos. The only thing I needed protection from, it would appear, is you. I can’t get you out of my fucking system.”

Now it’s my time to scoff. “Why, because I’m just some kind of addiction? Some kind of entertainment for you to be amused by until you find something else?”

He growls, and a cold warning tingles down my spine. “I told you that to explain why I’m not good for you. You don’t know what you’re signing up for with me.”

“Well, maybe I should’ve asked the right questions before we started anything. This is hopeless, and you need to find something else to entertain you.”

He looks like he’s about to say something, but then Ivy’s voice interrupts us. I was so wrapped up in my argument with Ford that I hadn’t even noticed her pull over to the curb and approach us.

“Damn. Shit looks tense here. Did someone die?” she asks as she looks around. “Is Hawke not with you? It’s weird when you two aren’t up each other’s asses,” she says to Ford.

I take a step back, trying to put all my effort into reining in my anger so Ivy doesn’t think too hard about why we might be out here arguing. But then the silence stretches. I don’t know why I expect Ford to say something because he doesn’t. Instead, he shoves his hands in his pockets and stalks away. Of course he just takes off.

We’re just going around in circles at this point. Aren’t we? Did he think any of that would convince me to sleep with him again? Then again, maybe he has a point about me hating that he calls me on my shit. I wanted us to be a secret because it wasn’t anything more than just sex. But as I watch him walk away, I wonder what something more with Ford might look like. But just as quickly, I think about the fallout with our families.

“What was that about?” Ivy asks, staring after him.

“Nothing.” I shake my head and turn for the door. “My brother just asked him to check up on me after the date with Matthew.”

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