Page 123 of Perfect Liar

He went around the corner and through a door leading up another flight of stairs.

The attic space hadn’t been renovated like the other parts of the house. Oak floor planks were worn and scratched. Walls revealed lath and crumbling plaster. And exposed stone.

Dimly lit sconces threw off unsettling shadows.

Battered wooden doors with tarnished gold brackets lined up along the corridor like soldiers. I imagined the little cards once displayed in those brackets with handwritten names on them—the names of servants from a time long ago.

Of course, Will knew I was there, but he continued down the dark corridor anyway.

We walked in silence.

The only sounds were his heavy steps and the creaking boards beneath our feet.

Then the first window appeared, finally, and light rain drummed against it. Huge clouds circled the moon.

Will stopped walking at that point, and I plowed into his back. He didn’t turn around. His back vibrated. A slight tremble you had to be close enough to see. A warning. A threat.

“Elle, it’s not a good time for you to be near me. Go to your room.”

But I was determined not to leave him alone in that state.

Will had been there for me. He’d taken care of me. And he still carried the weight of my burdens. So no, I wouldn’t be passive while he fell deeper into his darkness. I wouldn’t allow him to bear his own grief alone.

I loved him. His pain was my pain.

Watching his shoulders rise and fall as his breath flowed in and out of his body, I waited quietly for his next move. We stayed right there for several long minutes, standing close to each other but not touching, both of us silent and on edge.

When the cadence of his shoulders slowed down, I reached out and touched his back with just my fingertips.

His breath stopped. Everything stopped. His shoulders. Time.

Finally, he turned around, and warning was written in his wild eyes, his beautiful blue eclipsed by black.

I swallowed and straightened my back. Beast or not, I wasn’t leaving him.

“Will, you need me.”

He closed his eyes, nodding. And as his spicy warm scent filled the space, it seemed like an eternity passed before he opened his eyes, but when he did, he drove his gaze hard into mine. He bared everything, showed me everything. His pain, the fear, the guilt he felt, and the anger that had become rage.

I winced.

He stepped closer, looming over me, and hunger joined the emotional chaos in his eyes. His hot breath touched my face.

“Good. You should be frightened.”

I wasn’t. Will had never intimidated me.

“You know I’m not afraid of you. But I am afraid of losing you, so if you won’t fight your demons, I’ll fight for you.”

After freezing for a second, he exploded. All of him…his body, emotions, soul.

He grabbed handfuls of my hair, pulled my head back, and covered my mouth with his, forcing his tongue past my lips. His kiss was unyielding and more than savage.

In that moment, all I wanted for him, for me, for us, was to ease his torment, to chase away his heartbreak. I would give him anything. I would give up everything. I pressed myself tightly against his tense body, encouraging him to kiss me more, to kiss me harder.

The force of his kiss split my lip.

The metallic tang hit our tongues, and he came down from his ruthless high but only long enough to look at my bottom lip and suck away the droplets of blood. Then his hand pushed under my skirt, into my panties.