Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 125248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Syn narrowed his eyes. “Understand why you lied to me?”
The words landed clean.
Furi inhaled a shaky breath. “You know why I did it.”
“No,” Syn said. “I know what you did. Don’t confuse the two.”
“I’m your partner, Corbin.” Furi gritted. “You don’t have to take care of us on your own.”
Syn nodded slowly, the movement making Furi’s skin prickle.
“Right.” Syn’s mouth twisted into something far from a smile. “So how much did you get paid to lie to me?”
Furi drug his hand over his mouth, his jaw, his beard, anything to buy him a few seconds before the truth ruined him. “I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d say no.”
Syn’s eyes flashed. “I didn’t ask you that.”
“Corbin, please.”
“How much!” he roared.
“It’s not about the money.”
Syn came off the stool so fast it tipped over. He grabbed the laptop with one hand and hurled it across the kitchen.
It hit the far wall with a violent crack. Shattered plastic and metal exploded before it fell to the floor in pieces.
Furi stilled, shoulders aching from tension, head throbbing.
Syn turned back to him, chest rising, eyes burning. “How much?”
Furi didn’t want to say it. God help him he didn’t want to say it.
“Furious,” Syn growled.
“So far…a little over thirty-four thousand,” he mumbled.
Syn’s eyes widened.
The anger on his face broke apart, shock taking its place. Then humiliation.
Syn glanced away. “Wow.”
“Corbin.”
“No, that’s…” Syn scoffed, as if he was trying to make sense of it all. “Damn. I guess you showed me.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Say what?”
“Like I did this to make you feel small or not needed.”
Syn’s gaze cut back to him. “Didn’t you?”
The tears welling in Furi’s eyes burned. He fought them back because tears wouldn’t help, they’d only seem like manipulation.
But staring at Syn’s face nearly undid him. The embarrassment in his eyes was something he hadn’t prepared for.
Anger, yes. Confusion, maybe.
But not this.
“I surely wouldn’t make that delivering food, huh?” Syn laughed harshly.
Furi sighed. “I just wanted to help. Why do you think you’re the only one who can make sacrifices?”
Syn stared at him incredulously. “There are hundreds of other jobs besides adult entertainment. Construction, lineman, commercial driving, repairmen. But I guess the gorgeous Furious Styles wouldn’t be caught dead doing such menial work.”
Furi’s sadness shifted to frustration, then annoyance, to hot defensiveness. He’d done the only thing he could think of that would stop the roof from falling in on their heads.
Yeah, maybe he’d gone about it the wrong way, he should’ve been truthful. But he’d be damned if he was going to just stand there and let Syn twist it as if he’d done it for vanity.
“So I fuckin jerked off on camera,” Furi snapped, throwing one hand out. “So-the-hell-what. These videos will help us until the shop stabilizes, and these internal affairs fuckers pull their heads out of their asses and let you go back to work.”
Syn went very still before he gritted between clenched teeth. “‘Videos’…as in plural.”
Furi froze.
Shit.
Syn frowned. “How many?”
Furi looked at the broken laptop on the floor, then back at the man he loved. There was no point in shaving pieces off the truth now. He straightened his spine. “Three.”
Syn’s nostrils flared.
“They’re already recorded. Now I’m done.”
Syn scoffed. “Where have I heard that before?”
Furi’s temper blazed hotter.
“You think you’re the only one who has to make hard decisions?” he demanded. “You think because you’re out there grinding yourself into the pavement that I’m supposed to sit at home like some goddamn kept man and wait for you to fix everything?”
Syn’s expression darkened, but Furi didn’t stop.
“I’ve had a man who owned me already, Corbin. I’m not interested in another.”
The second the words left his mouth, regret hit so violently he almost stumbled.
Syn blinked at him.
No explosion. No answer. Just a blink, slow and stunned.
Furi’s gut clenched.
Had he really just reached into the ugliest part of his past, dragged out the thought of his abusive ex-husband, and put Syn beside him?
How fucking dare he place Syn’s name anywhere near that man’s?
Syn had never tried to own or control him. Never raised a hand to him or made him feel small in order to feel big.
He covered his face with both hands, then dragged them back over his hair, squeezing his eyes shut. “I didn’t mean that,” he said, voice breaking. “Corbin, I’m so sorry. That was cruel. You didn’t deserve that. I was upset and scared…I didn’t mean it.”
Syn didn’t answer.
When Furi opened his eyes, Syn was bent behind the counter, then came back up holding a medium-sized suitcase.
Furi’s mind went white.
No. No, no, no. What the fuck?
Panic seized him so hard his chest forgot how to expand.
“No,” Furi said.
Syn reached for his keys.
“No, wait.” Furi moved before Syn could get around the counter, his body acting before pride had a chance to interfere. “Corbin, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lie to you. I swear I’ll never do it again.”