Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 99917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
He sighs deeply. “You think things can be fixed with one conversation. That years of abuse and torture can be erased because my brother says he’s sorry?”
It’s my turn to sigh, and I shake my head. “No, maybe that was naive of me to say and think. I know you two have a lot to work through, but I can’t be the bone stuck in the middle. I need to know you’ll try. Tell me you’ll try.”
When his eyes harden along with the set of his jaw, I shake my head. “I know you think you failed me, but you didn’t. All that matters is that you came, that you didn’t leave me there.” I cup his cheek this time. “I can’t live without you, and I can’t live without him, either. So regardless of the hatred between you two, you’re both stuck with each other unless you want to hurt me.”
“I would never hurt you.” He shakes his head. “I wish I had been there sooner, that they never got their hands on you in the first place. I should’ve protected you better.” His jaw clenches beneath my palm. “When I heard you scream—”
“Shhh, it’s okay. I’m here now,” I interrupt, unable to bear the self-recrimination in his voice. “We both are. But I need to know we aren’t going to just keep fighting and making things worse. I’ll say this only once, Arson. If you want me, you can have me. All of me. But the same goes for Aries. I belong to you both equally, or I belong to neither of you.”
There’s a heartbeat in which I couldn’t even believe I’d said that out loud. Then he sighs long and deep, licking his lips as if he’s thinking, then he glances back up at me.
Something shifts in his expression—a hunger, a need so primal it makes me shiver. His hand comes up, covering mine, his touch soft and warm. Turning his head, he presses his lips against my palm, the gesture so tender that an ache forms in my chest.
“Fuck…you don’t understand, Lilian. When I thought I’d lost you,” he murmurs against my skin. “When Drew said you were passed out, that you needed medical attention—”
“Drew?” I blink, trying to place the name. “Aries’s friend? Why was he there? Did he help rescue me?”
“They both did,” Arson admits reluctantly. “While I played the dutiful son role for Richard.”
The mention of my stepfather makes me sick to my stomach. That explains his outfit. “He knew I was missing?”
“I don’t know if he knew, but he knows something,” Arson confirms, his expression darkening like an impending storm cloud. “He mentioned a new treatment protocol that they want to try on you. Something developed at Hayes Enterprises Medical Research Division.”
The same division that ran the facility where Arson was kept. Panic fills my veins. I won’t be trapped, won’t be another victim.
“They want to trap me,” I whisper. “Like they trapped you.”
“I would love to see them try.” Arson smiles, the look so terrifying it even scares me. He rises from his knees and settles on the edge of the bed. “They’ll wish death had come to them sooner if they try to hurt you or take you away from me again.”
The ferocity in his voice, the absolute certainty—it stirs the embers of desire in me, an answering flame to his. Without thinking, I reach for him, fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt, pulling him closer.
“Lilian,” he warns, even as he leans in. There’s no denying our pull. Even he can feel the flames of desire licking at our skin. “You’re injured and stressed. I couldn’t…”
“I’m not really injured, and I’ll be stressed my whole life. That doesn’t change that I want you,” I breathe, cutting him off. “Or lessen how much I need you right now.”
“Goddammit, Lilian.” I can’t help but smile at the way he curses my name while watching his resistance shatter—quiet but devastating, like a dam giving way beneath too much pressure.
I’m mesmerized by the flare of his nostrils and the tight clench of his jaw. How he tries to fight the inevitable before giving in with a low, broken groan that sounds like it’s being dragged from the very center of his being.
EIGHT
LILIAN
In a blink, he’s on me. His mouth slams into mine—sudden, bruising, like he’s been dying of thirst and I’m the only drop of water he’ll ever have. The force of it rips a gasp from me, but he swallows the sound, devouring me like he’ll never let go. His hands clutch my face, shaking, almost frantic, his fingers digging into my jaw as if he’s terrified I’ll slip away. His lips are rough, punishing, then desperate, softer one second only to crash back into me harder the next, like he can’t decide if he wants to worship me or consume me whole.