Page 189 of Never Die for a Sinner
He lied to me. Every person I’ve ever loved has lied to me.
My eyes burn before I realize I’m crying.
I clutch the counter, feeling like I’m going to be sick, and when I raise my eyes to meet my reflection in the mirror, they’re bloodshot and smeared with makeup.
Levi Cross made me fall in love with him, then he used me.
Once the tears start, I’m powerless to stop them. Every single emotion I’ve been holding back for the last three months crashes through me like a tidal wave. Nana. The Burelli’s. Levi. The loneliness aching in my chest.
Suddenly . . . it’s all too much.
With some dismay, I realize the reason I’ve been so drawn to Levi from the moment I met him. It’s because when he looks at me, it’s not indifference I see. It’s reverence. Desire. Need so potent, it pisses him off.
Levi Cross isn’t indifferent towards me at all.
And that pisses him off.
Too bad it wasn’t enough.
“Ava, get the fuck back here,” Levi growls from behind me when I hurry up the stairs to the second story of Cross Estate. My heart bottoms out when he catches my hand, then it turns to something much more dangerous when I realize the unsteady ache in my chest is because I know we can’t come back from this.
Levi grips my hips and pushes back against the wall. My tongue darts out to lick my lips, and I’m so confused, I don’t know whether I want him to take me to his bed and hold me like his baby girl or bend me over the side of it and fuck me like his whore.
In a flash, he spins me around, pushing me back against the wall. His hands press into the wall on either side of my head, caging me in.
“Why are you hiding from me?” he asks, and the deadly edge to his voice is suddenly much softer.
It’s unfortunate because it will make it that much harder to deny him in the end.
“I . . .”
A tear slips down my cheek, and he watches its descent, his thumb coming up to capture it like it’s made of gold.
“Talk to me,” he says softly in my ear, and a shiver moves through me. I lay my head back against the wall, closing my eyes. “What happened?”
The scent of whiskey washes over me, and a fresh tear slips down my cheek.
When I force my eyes open, the eye contact sears. I want to look away, but I need to know the truth.
My mind races a million miles a minute, unable to comprehend that this entire thing between us has been nothing more than a lie.
—So, I ask the question that I know will either make or break us.
“Who is Nolan Marks, Levi?”
His entire body stiffens against mine, and that’s when Iknow.
I watch as realization crosses his handsome features, each passing moment more devastating than the last.
Then, in the silence of the hallway, he lets out a dark chuckle.
“This is great,” he mutters, pushing away from me. “Real fucking great.”
“You lied to me,” I breathe, tears stinging in the backs of my eyes. “Who is he, Levi?” When he’s silent, my patience snaps. “Who is he?” I screech, shoving at his chest with the anger coursing through me like hot water.
His gaze meets mine, and the darkness there makes it feel as though all the air has been sucked from the room.
His jaw tightens, and he looks away.
