Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
“Funny how life works,” he says, almost thoughtfully. “I always wanted to show you my place in Paris. And now here we are.”
I exhale a shaky breath. If he only knew the half of it.
“Here we are.”
I expect him to go on about rules and expectations and how he hates me. I expect him to tell me I’m his prisoner, under his command, and blah blah blah. Maybe smack his chest like the animal he is and growl his ownership of me, or whatever it is he’s told himself he deserves because of what I did.
If only he knew…
A part of me hopes he does punish me.
I never meant to betray the Gerard family. They’re the only family I have. I hate the guilt that weighs me down, the knowledge that I hurt people who cared for me. I hate the pain of their rejection.
I swipe discreetly at my tears that will fall as I continue to stare out at the night through watery eyes, trying to ignore him. I’m not so much interested in what’s out the window so much as I’m trying to make sure I don’t look at him.
If I do, I might love him again.
I can feel him, though. Beside me. And there’s nothing he could ever do that would make me forget.
The nights of passion. The late-night hookups. Our rendezvous at Le Luxe. The hours we spent confiding in one another, sharing our hopes and dreams and regrets. The midnight sex and passion a girl could only ever dream of.
It’s how I got into this predicament to begin with.
Someone knew, though. Someone saw. And someone used my love for him against us.
I flinch when he speaks, his voice as harsh as a slap. “Why did you do it?”
I look at him in surprise at first, wondering if he’s asking why I fell in love with him.
But no. Of course that isn’t it. He may be many things, but he isn’t a mind reader.
He wants to know why I chose to betray him and his family.
I snort, trying to feign disdain. “Maybe they paid me. Maybe I needed the money.”
I’ve always been a terrible liar.
He snorts. “Liar.”
And he’s always been able to suss me out.
That’s honestly what I’m afraid of.
I look back out the window and try to put up a wall between us. I can’t, though. I can feel the tension between us, and I know it isn’t just the knowledge of what I did. It runs so much deeper than that.
I gasp out loud when I feel his hand on my knee.
“Skittish.”
I don’t reply.
He continues, “We have a lot to address.”
Oh yes, we do.
“And we’re going to start with honesty, Cosette.”
I wonder if it’s only hopeful thinking that his voice is a little softer this time. To anyone looking in from the outside, Lyam’s the life of the party, full of jokes and laughter and humor. He could tell you the best restaurant to go to in any major city, the best nightclub, the most luxurious hotel. Women fawn over him at Le Luxe like he’s an ancient deity incarnate, a god descended from Mount Olympus who’s graced us mere mortals with his presence.
No one knows the way he broods when he’s alone.
Even his brothers don’t know about the scars on his back or why he never sleeps.
But I do.
“What do you want me to tell you?” I ask, my voice husky with emotion because I know before he answers that I can’t tell him the truth. None of it. Not why I made the decision to betray them. Not how I really feel.
And most definitely not who I really am.
“You heard me. Why did you do it?”
“I told you that night,” I say, grateful he’s focused on the road because I don’t want to look in his eyes. “They threatened to hurt you.”
The fingers on my knee tighten.
“And we both know that was a lie. My brothers buy it, but I don’t.”
Is that why he’s the one who spared my life?
How can he see through me like that? How? My God, sometimes I wonder if the man is superhuman.
His phone rings. Cursing, he glances at the screen and stabs it with his finger. Thayer’s voice comes over the car speakers.
“You got her.”
“Yeah.”
There’s a pause, before Thayer clears his throat.
“And Claude?”
Lyam’s jaw tightens before he responds. “Is on his way back to Corsica.”
“Alive?”
“Yeah, fucking alive. He’ll need a medic, but I told you I wouldn’t kill him on a whim.”
Now who’s the one lying? Lyam would absolutely kill someone on a whim if he thought he had to.
I’m under no delusion that his brutal attack had anything to do with caring about me. No, definitely not. I know for a fact that it was only because Claude touched Lyam’s property. I have nothing to do with it.