Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 123575 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 494(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123575 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 494(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
He steps closer, and it’s then that I see the fresh bruises on his face, my gaze drifting to the cut above his eyebrow. His proximity reminds me of how safe and secure I felt with his body pressed against mine, his cock deep inside me.
“There was no giving, Lilian,” he continues, voice dropping lower. “Only taking. First him, then me.”
That’s a low blow, even for him. “I made a choice,” I insist, though uncertainty creeps in. I wanted both of them, but I’m not sure I would’ve wanted it to be in the way it happened. “I agreed to your terms.”
“Did you?” His hazel eyes burned into mine. “Or did the adrenaline and drugs make the choice for you?”
“The chemicals lowered my inhibitions,” I argue, gripping the sheet tighter. “But they didn’t create desires that weren’t already there. No matter what you think, I wanted it.”
He laughs, the sound so cold it feels foreign coming from the same lips that left trails of fire on my body. “Is that what you tell yourself to lessen the trauma? That you wanted to be taken on a concrete floor while you were drugged?”
The crude description makes me flinch, but I hold his gaze. “How it happened no longer matters. I wanted it. Wanted both of you. I have for longer than I’d care to admit.”
The way his jaw tightens, his fists clenched tight at his sides…he’s acting like he gives a shit, like he cares about my well-being. Either that, or he’s pissed that I’m making him follow through with his part of the deal.
“Even after…” His voice tightens, turning brittle with restraint.
“Even after what?”
His upper lip curls into a sneer. “It doesn’t matter. So now you assume the agreement is done? That spreading your legs means Aries goes free?”
“You said—”
“I know what I said.” He cuts me off and begins to pace the small space in front of me. “I also know what actually happened. I didn’t take anything from you that you didn’t beg for in that shower. It was Aries who took from you without asking.”
Confusion tangles my thoughts. Yes, Aries had been rough, desperate even, but he didn’t take anything from me that I hadn’t given him. They both wanted to use me to hurt each other.
“You’re just as much at fault as he is.”
A twisted smile appears on his lips, sending a rush of cold dread slithering down my spine. “Catching up, finally? Realizing that I’m the monster I told you I was all along?”
“Nothing you do will ever make me believe you’re a monster. You’re hurt, you want retribution, you want to make them feel the same pain you felt. I understand that. I want to help you. That’s why I’m here, but we had a deal. I gave you what you wanted.”
He rolls his eyes. “The virgin sacrifice balances the scales?”
Something in his tone sets alarm bells ringing. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying”—he moves closer, eyes never leaving mine—“that Aries got far more out of this bargain than I did.”
I recoil slightly, mind racing to decode his meaning. “I don’t understand.”
“He didn’t just take your virginity, Lilian.” Arson’s voice drops lower, an edge of pain beneath the anger. “He took what he wanted and left you unconscious on the wet floor. Used you as a distraction to escape. Would have been halfway to freedom if I hadn’t stopped him.”
The revelation hits hard, pieces clicking into place. The soreness. The abandonment. The way Arson had been the one to carry me to safety, to clean me up, and care for me afterward.
“You’re lying,” I whisper, but doubt has already started to take root. “He wouldn’t just leave me there.”
“Wouldn’t he?” Arson laughs humorlessly. “I know it’s hard to believe that your precious Aries…the one you’ve been pining after for years, the same one who kept you at arm’s length… would do such a terrible thing, that he would use you as a weapon against me when the occasion came.”
Unwelcome tears prick at my eyes. “Stop it.”
“You want to know who Aries is, how much you matter to him?” he continues relentlessly. “Here it is: he fucked you, got what he wanted, and walked away without a backward glance. He left you bleeding and unconscious on the cold concrete. There’s not a doubt in my mind that he would have let you die there if it meant gaining his freedom.”
Each word chips away at something fundamental inside me—the years of fantasy built around Aries, the noble stepbrother who kept his distance to protect me. Strong, dependent, fierce in loyalty. The reality Arson presents is too painful to accept, yet too specific to dismiss.
“I don’t believe you,” I whisper, though I can hear the uncertainty in my voice.
“I don’t need you to believe me. I know what I saw. Or did you forget that it was me who gave you a shower? Who fed you? Who tended to your wounds? Who held you in their fucking arms?” I hate what he’s telling me. Hate that it leads me to doubt Aries and his intentions. That it makes me believe I might not know him at all.