Page 86 of Lesson In Honesty
He wouldn’t be as restrained as Mack if he saw them again.
“They made you so angry, you decided to go rogue?”
“Angry isn’t the operative word. Think bigger, badder, hotter,morethan angry. I’ve never wanted to beat someone to death or rip their tongues out, but that’s where they pushed me tonight. When I came over here, I tried to think how I could burn it all away before I got within touching distance of Sierra, then there you were. Something just snapped and I thoughtfuck it. I want Sierra, Liam, and she comes hand in hand with you. I know the kind of relationship you had with Wyatt; I’m starting to believe I need the same.”
Liam narrowed his eyes. “You know what that entails, right?”
“You don’t have to spell it out. It doesn’t matter how much time has passed, how much I have left here, I already know I can’t walk away. This relationship is a triangle. Sierra’s connected to you, and to me. That leaves one side of the triangle dangerously unbalanced. If I left, there’d be no triangle at all.” He exhaled slowly. “God knows if I’ll be a good top or bottom when it comes to you. Unfamiliar territory, if you get my drift. I’m willing to try if it restores the balance and means staying here with you. Both of you.”
There was no denying Liam felt that same imbalance. He’d felt it before, that discordance, only last time the reason came down to Wyatt and his to-and-fro attitude toward Sierra. Loving her one moment, hating her the next, and never fully comfortable with the physical consequences of her health.
“Don’t force yourself to become something you’re not just to be ours. It doesn’t take long to start resenting others.”
“Did that kiss feel forced?” Running his thumb over his swollen mouth, Mack grinned. “Didn’t feel that way to me. There’s chemistry here, Liam. Masses of it threading between you, me, and Sierra.” He banged his fist against his chest. “It hums in here, stronger when you two are near. There’s no resentment, no sense of changing against my will. I’m becoming who I’m supposed to be, doing what makes me happy for once.”
Liam thought of Sierra, how she was flourishing here. Part of that wasn’t just different scenery and a reprieve from unsavory memories. It was the atmosphere, and yes, a lot of it was Mack. He understood it because both were having the same effect on him. “All right. We’ll ride this out to the end as planned. If you still feel the same then, we’ll talk to Sierra about the future.”
“I will.”
“I believe you.” Liam laughed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Christ, let’s just see where tonight leads. There’s been a change of plan.”
Mindful of the time, he took Mack through his idea and the steps he’d already taken to get one thing through Sierra’s stubborn brain.
She deserved love.
Chapter Ten
Sierra
She drank the water.
It didn’t make her feel much better, just heavy and bloated like the fat, ugly swamp monster those horrible Littles said she was. A hairy abomination, not worthy of the love of one Daddy, let alone two. They’d taunted her, asking how Liam could standsticking his dick in her, if he pressed her face into a pillow so he didn’t lose his erection before he even got it in her.
That cut too close to home, an almost perfect bullseye in an open wound.
She was exhausted, right down to the bones. Not just from crying her heart out or from the pain they’d caused. No, this exhaustion stemmed from something far deeper, a familiar place she hadn’t visited in years, where the void opened up and swallowed her whole into the pitch blackness beyond.
Through the foggy buzz in her head, an epic crying hangover in progress, she heard Liam’s voice, low and soothing. For a while it was just him, then Mack’s joined in. She couldn’t distinguish the words, but she took comfort in the rhythm of them while she could.
Did you crawl out of the swamp or did someone hook your lip and drag you out?
She looks like a monkey. A mutant ape. Call a trophy hunter—someone would pay good money to have that head stuffed and mounted on their wall.
Maybe her mother fucked Bigfoot.
Don’t be stupid. A woman gives birth to this kind of abomination, she wasn’t fucked willingly. Was mommy raped by Bigfoot? Is that why you look like an ape after its been hit by a semi?
Sierra leaned forward and covered her face with her hands. Sickness roiled in her belly, threatening to expel the water. More tears wanted to fall, but the ducts were dry, burning her eyes.
Wyatt had tried to love her and failed.
Liam believed he loved her, but they both knew he could do better.
Mack… well, he’d go home soon.
Crawl back into your hole and die, why don’t you? Think of it as community service. Saves us the job of calling wildlife enforcement to come out and shoot you.
Bet they’d have fun hunting it, though.