Page 3 of Perfect Liar

I crossed to the opposite side of the street to see her face.

About twenty seconds later, a police officer stepped in behind her. He stared at her arse, then changed his posture and stared at the side of her face. He had targeted her.

The motherfucker had five seconds to move on.

My palms itched.

He reached for her hair.

I stepped off the curb and weaved through the procession.

A second officer appeared behind her and made eye contact with me. He gripped his partner’s shoulder, and they rushed away, covering two blocks on foot before leaving in an unmarked car.

After returning to my spot, I found Ellie again. But this time, she took me by surprise…she locked her eyes on mine.

My heart’s pounding intensified.

Christ, the raw hunger in her eyes. And the beautiful innocence. The combination drove me mad. It sealed her fate.

I would never leave the US again without her.

Then the longing in her eyes turned to sadness.

Her suffering made me want to shelter her in my arms and protect her from every-fucking-thing. I wanted to kiss away the unhappiness. I ached to be inside her, to show her that she mattered, that she had a place in the world with me.

Heat surged through my body, part anger, part desire. But when she licked her pretty lips, my need for her took over. My cock grew hard, and familiar thoughts about having her in my bed consumed me…the same fantasy that tormented me night after night where I restrained her, kissed her, fucked her until she screamed my name.

Ah, but it wouldn’t be a fantasy much longer.

No, her time had run out, and I would do those things and quite a lot more to her soon.

When I let one corner of my mouth draw into a smirk, her eyes changed again, provoking me, pushing me for more. And then she smiled, hitting me with a lovely strength so powerful that it could have easily put me on my knees.

I was lost to her.

I wanted to drown in her beauty, in her goodness, in the way she shined her pure light into my darkness.

You’ll ruin it all…you’ll ruin her.

She broke our eye contact.

I walked away.

CHAPTER 1

ELLIE

CONNECTICUT, US

His dark presence drew me in hard and made my head spin.

It also gave me comfort. The ghosts of men had never scared me. I spent most of my life walking among them. My late father, his brother, their father. Even my mother had left me.

But my perfect stranger, he was alive and breathing and standing right in front of me. Only a narrow street separated us.

For a minute, when his intense stare caught mine, we became more than just two living souls at the same small-town parade. We were one painful, beautiful burning connection.

Neither of us looked away.