Page 23 of King of Lies
Everyday romance
Three weeks later …
The weeks of pure fairytale bliss slid one into the other. We spent the days waking up together, all hands, mouths, and bodies coming together, and then parting ways. Me going to the shop, him going to work. Only to come back together in the evenings. Occasionally, we went out, caught a movie, went to dinner, normal date stuff, but usually we had quiet nights at home.
“Now that I’ve found you, I don’t want to share you more than I have to,” he’d whispered late one night after we’d made love.
The only thing he did not do was join me for Sunday dinners with my uncles, claiming that was his time to get caught up for the week on European time. And, because he’d never lied to me before, I believed him. Rhys had told me that he felt like he didn’t want to rush the meeting with my guardians. They had had me all to themselves for years and it was going to be hard to let go, so he was offering them a kindness by not forcing the seriousness of our relationship in their faces so soon.
This morning, his phone chimed with a message not long after he’d finished with me, still deep inside me and me very much nestled in his protective arms.
At the chime that I’ve never heard before, he pulls from me and lets me go.
“Excuse me,” he says quietly, eyes already trained to his phone. “I need to see what that is.”
“Of course.”
He reaches for his phone and swings his legs over the side of the bed. “I need to make a call,” he says, striding naked from the room, the full condom still hanging from him.
There’s so very little that I know about him, and I do trust him to tell me more when he’s ready, but he knows everything about me. Not too long ago, in this very bed, I shared with him how I had come to live under the care of my uncles. How my parents, who were archeologists, were killed in a plane crash in the jungles of South America when I was just a scared little girl.
There is nothing he does not know about me and I’m desperate for more about him because I’m falling in love with him. It’s too soon, I know, and I’ve done my very best to shield my feelings from him even though I think there’s nothing that he doesn’t see.
Quickly, I shuffle from the bed and scoop up his shirt from the floor, sliding it up my arms and doing up one of the buttons in the middle. Then I tiptoe to the door and listen to his deep voice on his end of the conversation.
“Am I free to speak here?” he asks whomever is on the other end of the line and it sounds so serious that I want to know who it is.
“I hear congratulations are in order.” I wait for him to say more as the tension in his back tightens. “I figured it wasn’t as it seems.”
He listens to someone, the phone held so tight in his hand, the knuckles are white, and it looks like the black metal and glass are about to crush in his hand as he holds it to his ear.
“There are things in play that you don’t understand.” Then he goes on to rock my world. “I found her,” he says quietly.
Could he be talking about me?
“It’s true,” Rhys confirms the question on the other end of the line. He must sense me close because he looks over his shoulder and his eyes heat when they see me standing there in nothing but his shirt.
“You as well, mate.” And then he ends the call before turning to me fully. “Come here, Hen. It seems I have a need for you again.”
I shiver and then I move to him. He spears my hair with his fingers and yanks me to him for a punishing kiss. He rips the spent condom from his cock and tosses it to the floor. When he’s done, he bends me over the arm of the sofa and he enters me savagely. For the first time he enters me bare, but I’m too far gone in my weakness for him to question any of his actions. Any of his motives.
He pulls my head back by my hair as he spanks me. I grind my heavy clit into the arm of the sofa as I feel the weight of his sack hit me with the rhythm of his thrusts and I come harder than ever before, barely aware that the state of play had changed.
Little did I know that I should have trusted my instinct. I should have known better because in life if someone gives you a glimpse of who they are, you should believe them.
There are no fairytales and castles in the sky, only nightmares and monsters.
Chapter 9
Business
Two weeks later…
Today was a great day.
The shop was buzzing with excitement. An up and coming author booked an intimate signing there and everyone is downright giddy. Her books are fantastic. I can’t wait to meet her. We got the promotional materials—banners, flyers, posters—in the window announcing her impending arrival and up around the store so we can drum up interest. The social media pages for the shop were on fire when the tour was announced by her people.
Then after lunch we got a huge shipment of her books. Like pallets and pallets of them. They expect there to be quite a buzz here. It’s thrilling, really. I can’t wait to tell Rhys about it over dinner. I have his favorite stew in the crockpot again after he declared his undying love for it. I’ve made it twice since, and every time he shows me his gratitude in new and exciting ways. I can’t wait.
