Page 26 of Ly to Me (Devils of Alliston Springs #1)

Lyra

The Knife

A talas were once believed to be extinct.

Their host plant—the thing their larva fed off of—had been overused.

Without the plant, the butterflies had nowhere to lay their eggs.

Nowhere for the next generation to eat. When the plant was rediscovered, so was the larva.

All they needed was that plant to thrive again.

That’s what I thought about as Carver settled me on my knees on the porch and started wrapping the reins still looped around my neck to the railing.

The blue wings on his arm almost seemed to mock me and my decisions—all of them.

Running from this town was supposed to keep me as good as extinct in the eyes of everyone I’d left.

But, get that host plant—the thing that made you thrive, gave you a fucking purpose to live— reintegrated, and—

“Ly.” I blinked, bringing my attention from his arm to my bound ones. He leaned in, and I turned my head to the side. “Keep those pretty brown eyes on me.” His fingers gripped my chin and pulled me back.

I scowled. “Why?” My skin rubbed against the reins keeping my body to the railing even as I tried to wriggle free. “So I can watch you leave me out here? No, thanks. I’ll pass.”

“Whether or not you stay out here all night is up to you.” His hold tightened, keeping me from jerking away. “But you will keep your eyes on me until I tell you otherwise.”

I pinched my eyes closed, refusing to let him see those eyes he might actually not hate as much as I did. He groaned and then my neck jerked back, the breath wringing out from my throat.

“Keep. Your. Eyes. On. Me.” I gasped for air, but allowed my eyes to flutter open. He reached behind my neck and loosened the reins, then rested on his haunches, arms draped over his knees, looking as unbothered as ever. “Better.”

“So you like restraints now. Got it.” I tried to rub my neck with my bound shoulder. It was a no-go.

He chuckled. “This was just to keep you from runnin’.”

“Then chasin’ ain’t your thing,” I quipped.

“I wouldn’t say that.” His eyes lit up as he thought for a moment. “With you, it seems to be. But I’d prefer to test your limits tonight—not mine.”

“I ruined your truck, trashed your furniture.” My eyes trailed over his tattoos, dodging the butterfly. “And you want to test my limits? ”

“Well, wife,” he purred. “I hate to tell you this, but you destroyin’ shit only makes me think you care.”

“I don’t—”

He held up a hand, stopping my words as his voice lowered. “Don’t lie to me.”

“That’s your limit? Me lying to you? Or just lies, in general?”

His fingers twitched like he was agitated at the thought alone. “You’re not flipping this on me again, little Ly.”

“I can, and I—”

“You can’t , actually.” He crooked a finger and brushed my cheek with his knuckle, a twisted type of calm seeming to wash over him.

“As much as you want me to think you don’t have a piece of me in your heart anymore, I can see”—he glanced through the railing, eyes darting between the firepit and me—“you do.”

“Not true.” I scoffed and rolled my eyes away from him. Embers and ash from the fire were either dancing over from the pit and burning my lungs in a painful kind of way, or his words had an ounce of truth and breathing had become difficult for a whole other reason.

I refused to believe the latter.

“That’s a lie.” His touch trailed over the leather around my neck and continued lower.

It swept over my collarbone, right about where the reins had continued to wrap around my body and formed criss-crosses between my breasts, then looped around my arms and ribs before ending at my waist. I was completely at his mercy.

“It’s not true. I don’t give a fuck about you.”

“All that time I spent fallin’ for you, and you don’t think I can still tell when you lie?” He tsked.

I jerked against the reins again. Still, no use. I don’t know why I even tried. “What the hell do you want with me like this?”

The pads of his fingers slid over the shirt I’d taken from his closet until they met a peak.

I let out a soft moan at the touch as he pinched my hardened nipple, then rolled it between his skilled fingers, the tightness of the bindings only enhancing the sensation.

I fought through my lust-filled haze and glared at him, keeping that eye-contact he demanded of me.

He chuckled. “I see my wife can obey orders quite fine.”

“Couldn’t you have just listed all the stuff you wanted to do to me in the contract? This all seems like it’s more effort for—” He palmed my breast, flicking my nipple with his thumb. I swallowed to regulate my voice. “For you,” I finished.

“Why do you think your body means nothin’?

” He ignored my question and made my body go rigid with his own.

His palm softened around my breast, and just as I thought he was going to leave me there, his hand slid down to my thigh.

When he adjusted my knees, forcing my legs further apart, I just… let him.

“Because it’s…it's just a body,” I said. Calloused fingers worked their way up slowly, grazing over the sensitive skin between my legs. “You seemed fine using it for yourself years ago. Why is it any different now?”

His eyes darkened. “I didn’t use you. Or your body.”

“And how many women have you told that to?”

His hand hesitated, another lapse of judgement sweeping through his head, I assumed. Then he grinned. “Ly, I know what you’re doing.” His movement continued until his fingers were right over my wet panties. “Hate to tell you, sweetheart, but it isn’t going to work this time.”

“And what am I doin’?” My words came out breathless as a single digit swept over my underwear and down my slit.

“You want to distract me from the point I’m trying to make here.” Carver dropped a knee to the floor and leaned in closer, bracing his weight with his hand on the railing behind me.

I tipped my chin back, keeping his gaze. “Didn’t realize you had a point to this.”

“You want me to storm off and leave you all alone.” His finger stroked my soaked center as he continued—u p, down, up, down. “You want to hurt me because, somewhere along the lines, I hurt you, and neither one of us is willing to fold on the hows and whys.”

I forced a sneer through the pleasure. “The day I tell you what happened is the day that Hell freezes over.”

“I’ll start collecting ice.” He smirked as I glowered more. “But, I’m not done telling you what you’re doing.”

“You’ve said enough.”

“I haven’t.” He roughly slapped my pussy.

I tossed my head back at the sting, trying my damndest to keep my lips from letting another moan slip by.

He went back to gentle strokes before continuing.

“You want to never let anyone in because you think you aren’t worth more than a grain of salt.

And you keep that front up by lyin’ through your teeth so no one can ever know the real you. ” I winced. “Am I getting close?”

“Screw you, Carver.”

“Thought you’d say that.” He pushed my panties to the side, and I did nothing to prevent his fingers from slipping inside me. My hips bucked, forcing the reins to tighten.

“Eyes on me, remember?” His stern voice coaxed my lids back open, meeting those Atala-blue eyes, yet his fingers didn’t move from their knuckle-deep position. “Good girl. Just like that.”

My knees slid further apart against the wood with his praise. Embers danced on a gust of wind, floating over us as he adjusted and added another finger. My hips wriggled, seeking the friction and movement he was denying me.

His lips hovered over mine, warm breath falling over my mouth as I fought every urge to grind down on his hand and take what I wanted.

“That’s all? Don’t you want to do something more to me?” I taunted. Please do something more .

“Is that what you want”—he granted me a slight reprieve and started pumping his fingers slowly, soothing a portion of the building ache—“or your body ?”

“Both,” I replied without thinking. His fingers thrust in and curled, hitting a spot that made my legs tremble.

Guess that was the right answer .

He tipped his forehead to mine, maintaining a steady rhythm. “I thought you said your body meant nothing?”

More quiz questions . “I lied.”

He pulled back, eyes darting between both of mine in assessment. When the pad of his thumb swirled around my clit, I guessed he saw it wasn’t a total lie. It didn’t feel like nothing at the moment.

“And what will you say the next time someone else looks at your body and thinks they can have it?”

My brows furrowed. “That’s what you’re mad about?”

He stopped, but didn’t remove his fingers or thumb. “Yes,” he said flatly, like that should’ve been obvious.

I blinked in rapid succession. “Really? Not the truck, or—”

“No.” He shoved his fingers in roughly, and my back arched.

“I don’t believe you.”

He pulled his fingers free and spread my arousal along the side of my neck, right over my throbbing pulse. “You have no idea how much I wanted to pull out my pistol and shoot them both for even considering seeing an inch more of your perfect body than I allowed them to see.”

“Sharing is a hard limit, then?” Shivers raced down my spine, conflicting with the heat pooling low in my stomach as he thrust back into me.

He growled low. “Don’t even think about suggesting it again. Not while you’re my wife.”

And that was only going to be for twenty-four more days. I pushed down the odd sort of twinge in my chest that thought had caused and replaced it with my usual—anger and denial.

“I won’t be your wife forever, you know.” Carver’s jaw ticked as he removed his fingers again, and the loss of him inside me forced a whimper from my parted lips.

“You’re begging for me to push you further, aren’t you?”

“Nope.” I popped the ‘p’ and his eyes flared.