Page 60 of Their Diamond Ring Ruse

Julian couldn’t help himself. He dropped a kiss to the top of her head. Just when he thought he couldn’t love her any more, she did something like this and took his breath away.

He looked at his stepfather, once more prepared for this to be his last goodbye. ‘How much time do you have left?’ he asked.

‘What?’

‘The skin...the eyes. Yet you’re still drinking. How much time do you have left?’ Julian asked again.

‘Maybe six months,’ Vincent replied. ‘Less.’

‘You don’t deserve this but you’re getting it anyway. I’ll make sure you get treatment at the local hospital. I’m not getting you a carer to abuse. You dug this hole for yourself, and you can die alone.’

Julian led Lily out of the house, saying nothing until they were both in the car. Leaning his head back, he gave himself a moment—just one—before starting the car and easing it into the road, not bothering to look back at the house disappearing behind him.

Vincent wasn’t wrong. He was a monster. He’d been raised by one, after all.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

VINCENT’S WORDS WERE still spinning around Julian’s mind when they walked into the house. Nothing he’d said had been a surprise. They were all words he had said to himself.

Julian shrugged off his jacket, depositing it on the couch on the way to the massive window. It was dark over the water. Lights reflecting off the black surface.

‘Julian?’

He spun around at the sound of Lily’s voice. She had been so quietly supportive...hadn’t said anything on the drive home. No offerings of hollow words. Simply a presence beside him.

‘You know none of what he said is true, right?’ she said softly, padding over to him.

He put his hands on her hips as soon as she was close enough to touch.

‘None of it—I mean it.’

He closed his eyes for moment, but before he could say anything he was met with a very firm, ‘Julian...’

He couldn’t help but smile at that. Lily could see right through him and he had done nothing to deserve her.

‘I want you to listen to me very carefully,’ she said. ‘Just because that man raised you, it does not mean you will turn out like him. You are kind and protective, Julian. The only monster is Vincent.’

How could he tell her that wasn’t true? What kind of son didn’t do everything in his power to help his mother? Looking back, he knew he’d had options to get them out. Or, when he’d become the main source of conflict, to remove himself from the equation. Maybe not at first, but afterwards he could have thought of something.

‘Talk to me, please,’ Lily begged, cupping his cheek.

‘I know we’re not the same, Sunshine. But that doesn’t make me good,’ he said softly.

He wasn’t good. Not like her.

‘Yes, you are. Please don’t doubt that. I know today was hard...’

That was an understatement. To see his stepfather showing no remorse had infuriated Julian, and that tension still riddled his body, but he couldn’t explode. He had no way to let it out.

‘But you have to see how different you are. Will always be.’

‘Lily, I’m nothing but darkness.’

‘Julian, if it weren’t for the darkness we’d never see the stars. Despite everything you’ve been through, your heart is pure. I feel safe with you, and I haven’t felt that way in a long time.’

The words made a lump form in his throat, and all he could do was take her lips in his...swallow the gasp that made him burn for her. Sweetly, his lips roved over hers, sliding together and pulling apart. He felt her hand grip the shirt at his waist and he licked at the seam of her lips, which parted with a moan that had arousal arrowing through him.

He slid his hands down to her thighs, lifting her up, and then climbed the stairs to his bedroom, setting her back on her feet at the foot of his bed.

---