Page 9 of Liar
I fall forward, gasping and slapping my palm against the wall for support. While my breath recovers, the tingles between my thighs don’t abate.
What’s wrong with me?
“You haven’t said a word to me in four weeks,” I rasp, straightening. “Or seen me. And we live across the street from each other.”
“All deliberate.”
“No shit.” After a droll look, I push off the wall, spinning out of the corridor.
He catches me at the crook of my elbow. “This isn’t what I wanted.”
“But it’s the choice you made.” I whip my head around, facing him. “You don’t get to run through a forest and scale a cliff for me, in the dead of night, only to kiss me senseless then dump me like the trash at the side of your house.” I rip out of his hold, and this time, there’s no counterattack. “You said it yourself. You’re finished with me. You chose Savannah. Now prove it and allow me to walk away.”
Thorne’s brows smooth, creating an eerie cast to his features, like a predator relaxing its muscles before it springs. “I would very much like to tell you to fuck off. You twist my brain around in its skull. You’re so damn annoying.” He bares his teeth. “I want to be rid of you. I’m determined to get your smell out of my nose, the taste of your cunt off my tongue, the look of you burned off my retinas. But there you stay, and I’m here to tell you to leave.”
“Good.” I fist my hands at my sides. “I agree with all of that.”
“No. Quit Winthorpe. Leave Raven’s Bluff. Go back to your parents.”
I lower my brows. “You know I can’t do that. Malcolm—”
“I’ll deal with him. He won’t come after the Becketts, I promise.”
“Because your promises are so reliable.”
“Ember, I swear to fucking…” Thorne casts his gaze to the ceiling, glowering.
I jolt, shocked at his use of my given name.
“Stop with this stubborn shit. Yes, Sav’s back, and yes, she’ll be re-inducted into the Virtues. Do you not understand what this means for you?”
I tilt my head to the side. “Let me guess, this is you ‘saving’ me.”
“Yes! Jesus!” Thorne throws up his hands, the most emotion I’ve seen from him all day.
“Next time, maybe don’t start by wrapping your hand around my neck.”
“You loved it.”
The furious whisper leaves his lips as hot as they formed in his throat. His eyes convey the same temperature. I squirm, not from uncomfortableness, but…
“You’ve missed the way I control your breath, much the same as I’ve missed your soft begs for more.”
My cheeks warm. Thorne swims in my vision, his porcelain features, his dark, raven-colored hair smearing in the same way my pupils must be when I look back and remember the haze of our sex, never going all the way, but torturing each other with breathless orgasms…
But then he almost killed me.
I blink, a mental shock of cold water dousing my brain. I say, with renewed vigor, “You and I both know I can’t go anywhere now that your father was tipped off on what I was doing.”
Thorne frowns. His fingers curl at his sides.
“I was drugged, Thorne, on your watch. With your family’s illegal opiates that you’re using the town of Raven’s Bluff to make.”
He shakes his head. “That was fucking Zeke Aiden. I have every intention of making him pay.”
“After you do your father’s bidding and stay by Savannah’s side.”
Thorne goes rigid, his stare never leaving my face. For a moment, guilt trickles in as I remember the lashes Thorne received on that fateful night, for reasons he hasn’t expanded on. All I know is, Thorne was punished, the collar re-attached around his throat before the leash was hooked and gripped by Damion Briar. Thorne’s been brought to heel, and the first course of action is to look good in the media, hold Savannah’s hand, and gently bring her back to her rightful place as Thorne’s girlfriend.