Page 63 of His Trick

“You planning on talking, or continuing on with sulking. Do I just keep enjoying your silent brooding?”

I shot him a glare. “I’m not sulking.”

“You are.” His lips curled into that infuriating smirk. “You get this little crease right here—” He reached over with one long finger and tapped between my brows. “That’s your pissy bitch fit line. Did you pick that up from porking my sister for so long?”

I swatted his hand away. “Stop distracting the driver, Care Bear.”

“Don’t worry, Sunshine, I could drive with my eyes closed.”

I laughed without humor, the sound squeakier than I intended.

“Fat fucking chance you’re driving my car. You are a muscular version of a damn female when it comes to driving, and your skills will kill us both.”

“Aw, shucks. Do you like my muscles, Baby Boy?”

I tried to ignore his eyebrows wiggling at me like some creepy old Uncle Ted.

“Maybe we were always meant to die anyway,” he said lightly, though his eyes never left the road. “The darkness in us has a clock. Everybody with it snaps at some point. Goin’ out with you in the rain? Meh, there’s worse ways to take a dirt nap. We can just give in now. In the end, the storm will consume us both, Sunshine.”

I shifted in my seat, pulling my jacket tighter. I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I didn’t. The minute Carrington brought an anvil into my life, it became a storm I couldn’t escape.

But…to let it consume me? No. He’s wrong. I had to fight my darkness, even if he chose not to fight his. It’s all I know.

Hours in the car with his bad karaoke, sporadic dancing, jarring, and fucking child car games felt like torture.

He didn’t need to touch me to get under my skin.

He had this way of filling the space with his insufferable heat, with that agitating pressure…with himself. Even the occasional brush of his knuckles against my knee when I shifted gears felt deliberate, calculated, like he wanted to remind me he could touch me whenever he damn well pleased.

“I don’t know why you came,” I muttered.

“Because I wanted to.” His laugh was low, almost cruel. “Because you’re a fucking mess, and I don’t trust you to face your Daddy Dearest alone. You may just let go of the light you try so hard to keep. And that won’t be for him. I will be the reason you stop hiding. Not him.”

I clenched my jaw. “I don’t need you.”

He flicked ash out the window from the cigarette he’d lit without asking. The smoke filled the car, clinging to my throat, that fucking Turkish smell making me lose all sense. Although with his never-ending chimney smoking, I was getting oddly used to it. Guess I was getting the quick and dirty version ofexposure therapy. It no longer reminded me of my father. Now, it was attached to Carrington’s stupid grin.

“That’s the funny thing, Shiloh. You keep saying that, but you’ve been proven wrong time and time again. Do I need to make you scream the truth again, Baby Boy?”

I went quiet.

We pulled off the highway, the sun had already dipped, painting the sky a bruised purple. Carrington was sleeping when I slowed at the glowing vacancy sign of some roadside hotel, complete with peeling paint, a buzzing neon sign, and the kind of place that smelled like stale cigarettes and fucking hookers.

I wonder how the rich little boy will like my lived-in style choice.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, do you want a disease?” he muttered, jostling from the window and looking around as I parked.

I killed the engine and turned to look at him with my own wicked glint. “What, too classy for you? I thought you liked punishment, Care Bear. This is classic grit and spunk.”

“Yeah…” he said, stepping out with me. “If grit is used, condom wrappers from slags, maybe. I’m pretty sure my asswipe sperm donor rents these shit holes out for months for his lays.”

I chuckled. “Well, maybe we’ll meet your step-mommy.”

“Please don’t make me kill you.”

“Oh, c’mon. We could even run into a mini Carrington. Maybe a half-sibling you don’t know about.”

He looked at me with an expression I couldn’t read. “Would you fuck them too? You’ve got a thing for my siblings, Baby Boy.”