Page 86 of Lies Like Love

“I told you I don’t like that nickname.”

“Too bad, I do.”

“You’re such an ass.”

“You like that about me.” He reaches up and brushes my hair off my face, trailing his hand slowly down my throat, until a single finger trails down the center of my chest, pausing between my breasts. Feather-light, and still managing to send shockwaves through me.

His touch shouldn’t feel this good when he’s my stepbrother.

“Answer my question.” He locks gazes. “Are you a freaky girl under this polished exterior?”

My heart races, and I swear he looks like he wants to lean in, even if he shouldn’t. And I want him to. I want to go back to the beginning and take him up on whatever we could have been before our parents met.

I’d ruin myself if it was for him.

Instead of waiting for my answer, Jude pulls back, lifting off me and hopping off the bed. And I try to ignore that I can’t breathe as he creates more distance. Because the look in his eyes says I’m not the only one who was thinking things I shouldn’t.

Too bad control is something Jude’s a master of.

I watch him walk to the door, but as he reaches it, he pauses, planting a hand on the frame to look back at me.

“Hey, Fel?”

“Yeah?” I hope it doesn’t come out as choked as it feels.

“Stay away from Dad when I’m not around, all right?”

My eyebrows pinch. “Why?”

“Just—” He rakes his fingers through his short hair. The sandy brown is streaked with golden strands from the summer sun. “Please.”

I nod, not sure what I’m agreeing to, but seeing in his eyes he needs it.

Jude turns the handle, but just as he’s about to leave, screaming comes from down the hall. His face pinches and my stomach sinks.

Our parents are fighting again, not that either of us knows why.

I wait for Jude to leave me alone to listen to the chorus of screams through the walls, but he closes the door instead, walking back over to the bed and dropping onto it beside me.

He pulls a book off my nightstand and hands it to me.

“Read to me, Fel.” He crosses his arms over his chest and closes his eyes.

I’m not sure if it’s for me or him, and it doesn’t matter. Jude is safety, while our world is chaos. So I open the book and start at the beginning.

26

Jude

Tappingmyglassonthe countertop once, I draw it to my lips and drain the whiskey down my throat. Anything to take the edge off the fact that Fel’s joining my friends at Incinerate tonight. She might think it sounds exciting, but it’s nothing like the posh clubs she’s probably used to. Turn down the wrong hall and you’ll catch someone fucking or sticking a needle in their arm.

Down the rabbit hole we continue to go.

It’s my fault. I should have seen it coming.

From the moment she stepped foot in Twisted Roses, there was no going back. I might have scared her away at first by being a dick and pissing her off after fight night. But she was back in my life.Back in my fucking veins. All roads led to me dragging her into my world of ink and blood.

Fel has a vague idea of the person I’ve become, but she’s still only seen the surface. After I left my old life behind and met Sage and the guys, I discovered a world where embracing your darkness is encouraged instead of suppressed. And even if I didn’t get in deep with Sage’s buddies in the Twisted Kings MC, it doesn’t mean I haven’t done shit that would make Fel think I’m more unhinged than she already does.

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