Page 67 of King of Lies

“It’ll be all right.”

“You don’t even want to sleep in that bed now. Things are not right.”

“I know but I’ll … get over it. I have to.”

“Aye, you do because you can’t let whomever did this know that they’ve rattled you.”

“I think everyone knows after myFriday the 13thscream,” I tell him, and he smiles for the first time since we saw the vipers.

“Fine,” he concedes. “But if I’m at all uncomfortable, I’m telling the king.”

“Fine.”

“Why do I feel like I’ve just made a huge mistake?” he asks me.

“I have no idea,” I lie because honestly, I feel the same way.

This isn’t just mean words and hurt feelings anymore. Someone really meant to scare me. Or worse. If one of them bit me,I’d be dead.

Chapter 25

Best laid plans

Tight bands of the snakes wrap around me, holding me down and I scream …

“Stella,” someone whispers.

I have to get away from the snakes. I know that they’ll kill me this time. Oh God, please let me get away. I’ll never see my uncles again if I don’t. Or Rhys.

“Stella, Hen, wake up.”

Only I don’t feel the sting of the bite …

“Stella, wake the fuck up!” Rhys practically shouts as he shakes me, and my eyes pop open.

“Rhys?”

“Aye,” he snarls. “Who the bloody hell did you think it was?”

I’m alive. And Rhys is … mad?

“No one I know, obviously,” I tell him. “You scared the dickens out of me.”

He takes one look at my face and he must see the truth there because his features soften, and he pulls me into his arms. “Are you all right?”

No.“Yes,” I lie.

“I missed you so much, Hen,” he says as he shoves his face in the crook of my neck and I will my heart rate to slow down as he holds me. But then I can’t get it to slow because he really did miss me and he’s intent on showing, not only with his hands and mouth, which are everywhere all at once, but with his hard length that’s pressed to my thigh.

“Rhys,” I pant when he moves his mouth away from mine only to have my tank swept over my head. And then his hands are there, on my breasts, and he’s plucking at my nipples with his fingers, the bite turning into something else that I feel between my legs.

He leans down and I arch toward him as he takes the tip of my breast into his mouth. He sucks deep, hard enough to sting, and then soothes the hurt with gentle sweeps of his tongue. It feels so good I could probably come like this if he doesn’t stop, but he does.

Rhys kisses his way down my belly. “Are you wet for me, Hen?”

“Yes,” I whisper, and he drags my leggings and panties down in one swoop. He thrust two fingers into my pussy and groans.

“Aye, you are,” he says as he plunges them in and out of me and I watch him as he fucks me with his fingers. “I have to taste it. Would you like that?”