Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 100493 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100493 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
I rest back on my heels, swallowing past the throbbing in my throat.
The sun starts to set in a hue of sorbet, deepening his tanned skin as shadows darken along his cheekbones.
“What is it you think I was doing with Parker?” He asks, shocking me. “And don’t fucking bullshit.”
I shrug, because I truly don’t know. “Being a son who wanted to know his father?”
He holds me in place. “And how long do you think I’d been his son for?”
I tilt my head. “I’m going to go with all your life because well, that’s how—“
“—Venom,” he snaps but it’s gentle. “Now isn’t the time.”
I breathe out a sigh. He’s right.
“I don’t know. I guess I don’t know why you both lied and didn’t just say you were his son. Unless,” I lift a single finger. “Parker didn’t know you were his?”
“—You can do better than that,” he answers dryly.
Asshole.
This is going to be a long day. “I don’t know. Fill me in.”
He drags a hand down his face. “You’ll figure it out, Ivy.”
“It’s okay,” I whisper, but he tries to move out of my grip.
I force him back down to me. “I don’t need to know.”
His eyes widen. “You do, but it just can’t be me to tell you.”
“I know you’re not like him, Asher.” Guilt weighs down my words for even asking him that in the first place. “I saw it every single day how much you didn’t engage with him, I just want to know why. Why you put yourself there if you despised him so much?”
His hand slips behind my head, as if he’s afraid I’ll run. “I was there for you, Ivy. Not him. Not Camille. Not anyone else but fucking you.”
My brows cross. “What?”
He traces the choker over my neck, and my eyes fall to the faint scar on his.
“Mine. You’re never leaving me.” The words rip out of him and the muscles in his neck tense when he swallows.
I place my hand over his as my answer.
His grip on the chain tightens. “That’s an order, Ivy, not a declaration.”
“Okay!” I answer quickly, because I know. I know I can’t leave him even if I wanted to. And I have wanted to. Many times. “So, La Maison Du Mal, is this another family?”
He pushes up to his full height with a dry laugh, like the idea is so fucked it’s almost funny. “I wish.”
“Why would you wish? Playhouse isn’t something I’d wish on anyone.”
Which means he’s either more fucked up than I thought, or he doesn’t know enough about what I do.
Time slows as he turns over his shoulder. “Because killing one-thousand trained assassins would be much easier than going up against even just one member of La Maison Du Mal.”
Nothing. I have nothing to answer back to that, so I stand in place, mouth open.
I force myself to move forward. “Okay, so what do we do?”
“You believe me?” he asks, his eyes softening, as if I’ve given him something he’s wanted all along.
I dampen my bottom lip. It’s not like I have a choice, since my soul decided to trust him long before my heart did. “I believe you.”
Threading our fingers together, he tugs me onto his lap.
I swing my legs over to either side so I’m straddling him and bury my hand in his hair.
“Mmmm, fuck you feel good.” his eyes roll back, tension rolling off him with every twitch of his muscles. “We have to break up.”
I pull back. “What?”
“I was on the phone with him today. That’s who you saw me talking with. Emeric has been in hiding since the beginning. No one has seen him. Except you, of course.”
“So what did he want?” It makes sense more than him not replying to my texts. I would have sat with that for weeks, months, if Asher didn’t just tell me this.
“He wanted me to kill you.”
His mouth snaps shut, and the next words push through gritted teeth. “The Houses see you all as a problem. One they have no interest in fixing, so he wants you all dead. Obviously this appeases Aléia since she wants me with Camille.”
My vision blurs. I trusted Emeric. No, more than that—I was damn loyal to him.
“We have to bait him out of hiding,” Asher continues, his hands landing on my thighs. “Public fucking breakup. Leave you out in the open for him, in his mind, unprotected, since I buttered them up enough to think the only reason you were married to me was so I could kill you myself.”
I try to put even more distance between us, but he catches my face, forcing me still. “Which if you haven’t figured out already, is bullshit.”
I wish his words washed away the ache in my chest, but they don’t. Too much has happened.
He searches my eyes. “I fucking love you, Venom. Now, are you gonna play?”