Page 39 of Their Diamond Ring Ruse

‘It became a constant thing after that. And I tried to protect her, but I was weak. Eventually he had enough of me interfering and turned his violence on me.’

Julian still remembered the bruises. The pain of his broken arm.

‘You weren’t weak. You were young. Didn’t anyone help you? Report him?’

Julian smiled serenely down at Lily, brushing her tears away and kissing her forehead.

‘Who would?’

He was certain that the abuse had been suspected at his school, but no one had helped him, choosing instead to believe whatever lies his stepfather had told.

‘He would just explain everything away. I begged my mother to leave, but she never did.’

Again, he hadn’t been chosen.

‘She tried to defend me, but that only put her in harm’s way. There was no winning. And then, just before I turned fifteen, she died. It was his fault. He drank away every penny we had. There was nothing left for her treatment.’

And he had done nothing. It had just been him and his mother against the world and he had done nothing. How had his genius helped him then?

Guilt and shame ravaged him.

‘When did it stop?’ Lily asked, her voice hoarse and scratchy.

‘For her? When she got sick. For me? After she died. He didn’t realise how much bigger than him I’d had grown. I hadn’t either, until one day he came at me, and I swung for him, and the next thing I knew he was across the room in a heap.’

He felt a phantom pain spread across his knuckles. Felt a savage satisfaction settling in his belly as if the wound was still fresh. He had enjoyed it then. Had got high on the power of beating his stepfather. It had been the first real slice of elation he had felt in years. That explosion of violence had made him happy, and he had known what he was because of it.

‘What happened to him?’

He could see she was hoping for some retribution. He had wanted that too.

‘Nothing. I graduated from high school early, studied on a full ride and never went back. I haven’t seen him in over a decade. This is why I need control. Why I don’t have relationships or friends. I can’t risk turning into him. I can’t risk falling in love.’

‘Julian,’ she cried. ‘Vincent is not your father. You are not him.’

‘I don’t remember my father, Lily. It doesn’t matter what blood I have in me when that was the man who raised me. I’m vengeful because of him. I’m ruthless because of him. I watched my mother die because of him. All of that is in me. You say you want to see the good in people? Some of us don’t have any good left.’

‘That’s not true.’ Her hand caressed his cheek and he wiped away the tears that wouldn’t stop. ‘You’re a good man, Julian. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be helping me. Wouldn’t have protected me from Lincoln. Wouldn’t own the company you do. You’re good.’

Julian took her face in his hands, lowering his lips to hers slowly. His eyes were on hers, and just as their lips touched her wet lashes fluttered closed, but his didn’t. He couldn’t bear not to look at her.

‘Lily...’ he whispered.

He wanted to devour her but he took his time savouring her, kissing her sweetly under the stars. Not a soul in sight. Just him and her and the give of her soft lips, salty with tears shed for him. A crack formed in his chest at that alone.

She grabbed the lapels of his jacket, pulling herself up, trying to be closer to him, so he lifted her, holding her tightly, letting her kiss him deeply, a little clumsily. Her inexperience endearing. And then he was pushing her back against a pillar, his tongue demanding. Wanting Lily to give him more. For her to seek out her most hidden desires and present it to him.

Furious.

That was what this kiss had become.

Mouths moving together.

Biting. Licking. Sucking.

Pleading.

And then Lily was whispering in his ear. ‘Take me home, Julian.’

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