Page 2 of Ly to Me (Devils of Alliston Springs #1)

Sabrina all but shrugged as she exited the room.

Yep, that woman wouldn’t know self-worth if it slapped her in the face .

Unlike my parents, who’d told me to reach for the stars and guided me down the path to independence and a stable—mostly—life, I was sure hers were no better than, well, what she already was proving to be.

I kissed two fingers and lifted them to the sky, giving a silent apology to my dear folks who were probably bearing witness to their only son’s demise as I fucked my way through the entire town’s pick of women and those who visited.

It wasn’t their fault I was like this. It was all hers .

Sabrina didn’t take long to get back, tramping right into my room with not a towel in sight.

Jamie and whoever he picked up weren’t here yet, but they would be soon, and I knew that because as much as I hated Jamie’s personality, he was an excellent business partner.

He hardly smoked, never did drugs, and didn’t stay up late and roll out of bed at noon.

I couldn’t say the same for myself, but that was by choice.

I preferred to work without Jamie at my heels, asking questions about the current rotation, when to harvest, what we were doing with what batch and where it was going.

His specialty was money management, whereas mine was actually knowing what the fuck to do with a cannabis farm.

I was pretty sure Jamie still couldn’t tell me what the ‘tiny little hairs’ were on the plant, something I’d had the patience to explain to him several times now.

The sounds of Sabrina sighing while laying naked on my bed snapped my attention to the way her hair was trailing down her back. It gave me an unneeded flashback to a time when my behavior was more suitable for the man my parents raised me to be. The one I wasn’t living up to.

“You gonna keep starin’ at that desk or are you gonna come on over here?” She jutted her ass up into the air, causing me to cringe. Fuck, she had no clue how not into her I was. As if slamming her head onto a toilet earlier and closing the bathroom door in her face hadn’t been enough.

I pushed that all aside and peeled off my shirt, then stripped my boots and jeans, rolled on a condom, and fucked her like she wasn’t named Sabrina or Tina.

At some point in the middle of her screaming for me and calling me ‘daddy,’ I heard the front door open and close, and the subsequent footfalls of Jamie and his date.

I threw a pillow over the back of Sabrina’s head and forced her to shut the hell up while I kept trying to sate the insatiable.

The moment I pulled out, truly unsure if I came fully or not, I left Sabrina in the bed and took a long shower.

When I got out, she wasn’t awake to witness me leaving the room, choosing the guest room over joining her.

Some would call that a dick move, I would call it generous.

She got to come several times in one night and now she had a damn comfortable bed under her bony body.

I was starting to look like prince-fucking-charming, really.

A few hours of tossing and turning ended with an hour or two of actual sleep, but that wasn’t unusual.

I was used to being trapped in thoughts and memories I’d rather forget all about.

By 8 a.m., I was back in my room, grabbing my rolling tray and a cigarillo from my nightstand beside a still-sleeping Sabrina.

She groaned as I ground a gram from the newest batch and rolled a blunt, then sparked it and tossed the lighter back on the metal tray. As I leaned against the wall and stared out the window overlooking the barn, she rubbed her eyes.

“Hey.”

"Mornin'." I exhaled a lungful of smoke, not sparing a single glance her way while pointing at the door. “You ’bout ready to leave?”

“Really?” The incredulity in her tone irked me.

“Yeah.” I re-situated the cap on my head backward. “Got a busy day ahead and would like to get started.” It was a lie. My work didn’t start until later in the day when Jamie would be taking his first break. But it seemed to work fine as she started getting dressed.

“You didn’t sleep in here, did you?”

“Nope.”

“Why?”

I took another hit before blowing it out. “Didn’t want to.”

She scoffed over her shoulder. “You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”

I chuckled. “Yeah, actually. Heard that once or twice.”

She muttered under her breath about how unbelievable that was and she was betting it had been more than that.

It was.

“Can you at least walk me out?”

I shrugged. “Was going to. I might be a piece of work, but my mama raised me right.”

She pursed her lips as her shoes dangled from her fingers. “Exactly what part of what you just said was right ?”

I smirked as I took another hit, letting the cherry burn a while longer. Holding in the smoke, I answered, “I didn’t lie, now did I?”

I stayed true to my word and put out the rest of the blunt, tucking the remaining piece behind my ear before leading Sabrina to the door.

She should be happy I was, at least, using her name now instead of Tina, not that she was ever aware of that.

Those two points I got for her orgasms in the bathroom had turned to four before I’d left my room last night, but now it felt like I was down to one as she scowled at me when I opened the door and held my hand out for her to leave.

Thank fuck she drove her own car to get here.

“That’s it? Don’t you want my number or somethin’?”

“Not really.”

“Jerk,” she muttered and stomped off the wrap-around porch. I closed the door as she sped off.

“Mornin’,” Jamie said as I brushed by him. “Had a good night, I see?”

“As good as it can get, I suppose.” I settled down on the couch, then pulled the blunt from my ear and sparked it.

Jamie started murmuring to someone else, I’m guessing the woman he’d taken home, but I didn’t bother turning until I heard the last part—a name. I spun on the cushion, glancing back right as his girl left through the front door.

Every peaceful thought I had fled. “Who was that?”

“Last night’s fun.”

“Name?”

His brow arched but then fell as he shrugged it off. “She said her name was Lyra, but that sounds like a made-up name to me. Almost like she was—”

“Lyin’.” I glared past the window as my heart plummeted to my stomach. A flash of blonde hair played tricks on my brain as she entered a familiar car, yet, the face— that face— even through the windshield, was undeniably hers.

She was back.

“Yeah, guess so. Maybe you should take the day off. You look like crap.” Jamie left me with that and walked back to his room.

I let the image of smashing his face into the wall die as I watched the woman who destroyed my future drive off.

Lyra fucking Thomas was back.