Page 20 of Ly to Me (Devils of Alliston Springs #1)

Each of us was three deep on beers, and two shots as a starter. Which was exactly why I wasn’t surprised when Aubrey didn’t blink away from me as she said, “Prove it.”

Jamie dragged his palm down his face. “Aubrey, you’re drunk.”

My fingers inched higher, and gauging by Lyra’s slow reaction to squeeze her thighs together, her being a lightweight hadn’t changed a bit. Her elbows met the table as she bucked forward right as my fingers found her clit through her panties.

“What—” Lyra’s nails picked at the remnants of the label as I teasingly made slow circles around the bud. “What do you have in mind?” I stopped circling and pinched her clit through the fabric in warning.

Aubrey lit up, unaware that her new female crush was about to be fucked by my fingers— only my fingers—while she sat there daydreaming about things she’d never have. “Well, maybe—”

Jamie leaned back in his chair and shook his head in his hand. “No, Aubrey.”

“Oh, come on. It’s not like you haven’t shared a woman before with Carver.”

Jamie leaned in toward Aubrey, their words turning quick and sharp as they bickered.

Aubrey had been wrong—Jamie and I hadn’t shared a woman before in the sense that she had made it sound like we had.

But it had been enough to make Lyra’s thighs attempt to close me off from her pussy.

I used my legs to spread hers wider, then cupped her chin, putting my lips to her ear.

“Jealous, Ly?”

“Fuck. You.”

“—was just gonna say that I wanna watch.” Aubrey’s words stilled the air in the room.

“Lyra isn’t like that,” Jamie whispered to Aubrey. “She’s conservative, and—”

The glare I shot to Jamie threatened to pummel him sooner rather than later if he kept talking about my wife like he actually knew her.

“I have a better idea,” Lyra suggested, and I pinched her clit again. She didn’t even try to hide the moan that escaped her lips as her head fell forward on her hands. Jamie sat up straighter, his brow furrowing as he glanced at the table and how Lyra was positioned in my lap.

Fuck . “Ly,” I growled low.

“Why don’t we”—Lyra lifted her head, meeting Aubrey’s excited eyes—“swap.”

Fuck. No.

“Yes!” Aubrey clapped her hands on the table, then frowned. “Wait, is that like cheating since y’all are married?” Her head cocked at me for an answer when all I wanted to do was reach into my waistband and end them both for considering having what was fucking mine.

Lyra flicked her hand. “Nah, not if we both agree.” Her words slurred and my eyes narrowed on the nearly empty bottle in her hand. “It’s called being a hotwife.” My wife. She was my fucking wife.

I fisted her hair, my breath heavy on her neck. “Ly.” My other hand raised and curled around her beer bottle. “Article four.” I pried the bottle from her and slid it to the chair beside us, keeping my tone low so only we could hear.

She batted her long lashes slowly. “What rule am I breaking, exactly? You said if you were watching—”

“No.”

“That’s my safeword.” She giggled, a liquor smell rolling out thick from her mouth. Had she only taken two shots? “But it sounds so fun. Think about it—your cock in her while his”—she pointed a sloppy finger at Jamie—“is in—”

“You are mine and only mine. ” My voice boomed in the room as my vision turned hazy with rage. I lifted Lyra by her hips and set her on her feet beside me. “Go to our bedroom. Now.”

Her features fell as I pressed my hands to the table and stood, directing my next words to Jamie and his shits-for-brains girlfriend.

“You have two minutes to get your shit and get the fuck out of my house. If anyone is left breathing the same goddamn air as my wife in two minutes and one second, I’ll pull my pistol out and add new holes to y’alls bodies that you can use to fuck each other with. ”

“Car.” Lyra swayed beside me. “I don’t feel so good.”

“One minute, forty-five seconds. Better get goin’.” I scooped her into my arms as Jamie and Aubrey got up. The rest of the world blurred as I turned on my heels and rushed to our room, Ly’s limp body curled in on mine.

“Ly, how much did you drink?” I propped myself against the headboard with her in my arms, my heart thudding so hard, it hurt. Her skin had turned clammy and the redness in her cheeks had dimmed too much. She snaked her arms around my neck, even though she could hardly hold her own up.

“Talk to me, sweetheart.” She needed to stay awake. If she had taken something else—“Did you take anything?”

“Nnnn.” Her head rolled to the side, and she groaned. I lifted her eyelid, feeling an ounce of relief as her pupils dilated with the light, the whites of her eyes still just as bright. If she had any drugs, I would have found evidence of it in her car. She wasn’t lying, but—

The fucking bottle. The liquor smell permeating from her lips.

“Ly. I need you to answer me. How many times did you refill your bottle with liquor?” She groaned longer, and her hand moved to my chest, fisting my shirt.

White-hot anger rippled through me, this time, at myself. Of what I’d done. I’d been so focused on getting Lyra to crumble that I’d completely missed how her bottle with the same picked-over label came back to the table when a fresh bottle should have been in her hand.

“Stay awake.” Beautiful brown hair was stuck to her forehead over a sheen of sweat. I smoothed it away and her lips parted as her hazy eyes opened. “Stay with me.”

I glanced at the bathroom door, knowing sooner or later, that was the next stop.

She adjusted herself against me, like she’d do when we were young and I was her comfort, then murmured into my chest, “I’m sorry, Car.

” She nodded off, her breaths lengthening while mine struggled to regulate.

I traced the lines of her brows with my knuckle, the angle of her jaw with my fingertips, and the top of her forehead with my lips as I held her closer.

“Me too, sweetheart. Me too.”

TEN YEARS AGO

“You are comin’ tonight, right?” Jared asked, looking at me like he hadn’t been my friend for years.

“Depends. Is Noah going to show his face?”

His backpack straps raised as he shrugged.

“I dunno. Probably not if I tell him you’re going to bring the weird—” My eyes bore into his.

Jared cleared his throat. “Lyra,” he finished and kicked a rock before leaning against the school’s brick wall.

“Man, I don’t know if you’re just really into it this time because you’re about to go enlist once you graduate and get shipped off to Cali or Paris Island, but, I mean, are you calling it? ”

My teeth ground together painfully as my eyes darted across the field, landing on the yellow flowers. “I don’t fucking know what I’m doing.”

Jared snorted. “That’s obvious.”

I snapped my gaze to him, my eyes narrowing. “I didn’t mean about her.”

“Oh.” His throat bobbed, and he pushed off the wall.

“Look, I don’t know if you want my advice or not—” He paused, apparently waiting for me to speak.

When I didn’t, he continued, “So, I’ll just give it to you, then.

We are young. You’re going away”—his arms swayed back and forth with each point he made—“She has no future, and you made a—”

“I can’t do it,” I cut in, dragging a hand down my face. “I’m going to tell Noah I’m callin’ it.”

His eyes widened. “You’ve never called one before.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter to me anymore.”

He searched my face with his hazel eyes before sighing. “Which part exactly doesn’t matter?” His fingers swept over his short braids. “The money?”

“Any of it.”

“The Marines?”

I shook my head. “Not that, either.”

“Carver. Dude.” Jared shook his head. “You have been training for the Marines since I’ve known you.

” My focus narrowed to the several awards on his JROTC uniform.

His hands clasped together, pointing at my name badge.

“I remember the first time you put that shirt on, and I know it’s Army-related but you were still so proud. ”

My fist balled at my side as I looked away.

“Your advice, then?” I dipped my head before raising it to meet his gaze again.

He was the only one I’d ever talk to about this, besides my parents.

But they hadn’t even met her yet. I’m not sure they’d be too proud of the things I dabbled in with the guys, either.

“My advice is: don’t call it. Any of it.

Ask her to prom and do what you said you’d do.

Get the money from Noah and use it to get her a promise ring or some shit.

Go through with enlisting right after you graduate, like you’ve planned to do for years now, and have her wait for you.

It’s only a few months and then you’ll get to visit.

She will still be here.” His eyes softened as he looked at my fist. “Your life doesn’t have to be upended by some girl you didn’t even know a month ago. ”

“I think I love her.” The words tumbled from my mouth.

Jared just sighed again. “Let me ask you this: have you slept with her yet? Have you already won the—”

“No.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Do you want my advice in that department, too?”

I ran a hand through my hair as he leaned back on the wall, settling in like he’d taken my silence to mean yes .

I was still too stunned at what had just come from my mouth to tell him I was pretty close to having my mind made up already, and didn't need his advice to know how I felt about her. Everything else meant jack shit to me.

Putting a name to the feeling that had bloomed in my chest, and saying it aloud to my closest friend, made everything so much more clear. That was all that mattered. Her. Because I didn’t just think I loved her, I did love her.

“I say you take her to prom, or hell, even tonight’s party, and then you bring her home and sleep with her.

If she’s as good in bed as the rest of the school says—” My gut and fist twisted, but Jared pressed on, oblivious as to what that imagery was doing to me.

“Then, yeah. Maybe get her that ring and still. Fucking. Enlist.” When my vision cleared of the angry haze his words had created, he was standing in front of me, and his hand was on my shoulder.

“Nothing and no one is ever worth ruining your plans—shit, our plans—to that degree. Especially if the sex isn’t good. ”

I nodded as if I agreed to any part of what he was saying.

But none of what the rest of the guys said about her made any sense.

She’d stayed at my house all weekend, and not once did she flash any skin, or suggest that we do anything more than make out on my bed—which was all my doing in the first place.

We mostly played board games or watched movies—innocent enough.

Something didn’t add up, and as much as I had believed what they all said about her—what the entire school thought about her—was true, I didn’t know who she was deep down at the time.

Now, what I knew about her was completely different.

Lyra lied more than anyone else I knew, but she was also cunning, fucking brilliant, and utterly beautiful in ways I couldn’t comprehend.

Those mocking, lying words about watching eye-candy in the field ricocheted in my head as I waited for her to finish her last class, long after Jared had left to go home.

Lyra successfully put on a front, and let people believe the worst about her—but, why?