Page 136 of Ly to Me

“Are you sayin’ you want to break the contract?”

“I’m sayin’—” I’d forgotten what I was saying. I tipped my head back, taking in the ceiling like it would make me less hard.

It didn’t.

I adjusted myself, letting my head fall back to look at her. She dropped her arms, hips swaying as she walked up to me, her puffy eyes bringing me right back to the terrors of her past.

“Fuck me, Ly.” My palm met overgrown stubble as I scrubbed it down my face. Reaching for the collar at the nape of my neck, I peeled my shirt off. “Put this on.”

“But—”

“I’m tryin’ really hard not to fuck you right where you’re standing. I had something else planned and you having nothin’ on isn’t keeping me, or you, in the right headspace.”

She stood there, shoulders slumped.

“You know I love you.” I started fitting my shirt over her head.

“I do,” she replied softly.

“Then please know nothing you told me changes that.”

She nodded as I grabbed her wrist, pushing her arm through the sleeve, then moving onto the other. It was clear she didn’t believe me.

Using my thumb and forefinger, I gripped her chin, forcing her eyes to mine. “I mean it. Your body isn’t a tool for you to sway people with, much less me.”

“Because you’d love me in a potato sack?” she quipped.

I lightly gripped her throat and pulled her in for a tender kiss. “I’d fucking adore you in a potato sack.” My lips brushed over hers. “You’re safe with me, sweetheart.”

She batted her lashes, fighting back the wetness there, then jerked her chin toward one of the stalls. “You want me to help feed them? Is that why you told me to meet you out here?”

“No, but you can give them more if you want. That one there could use it.”

Lyra stepped past me, following my gesture to the stall. “Why does”—she bent down, looking at the underside of the horse through the metal door—“sheneed more food?”

“Her previous owners left her alone in a barren pasture. She was emaciated when Hayes brought her here.”

Ly’s throat bobbed. “You like feeding starved women, don’t you?”

She laughed.

I did not.

“You did eat, right?”

“I came out here in the exact things you told me to wear. You think I dodged the rest of your orders by not eating?” My brow arched. Ly sighed. “I ate a protein bar, if you must know.”

“Good girl.” My horse rubbed her head into my shoulder. “You too, B. Needy thing.”

“She really likes you.”

“She really likes anyone who feeds her treats all the time and gives her as much freedom as I do.”

“She feels safe with you.” Lyra stroked the unnamed horse’s nose, her statement sinking into my chest. Hard. “What’s this one’s name?”

“What do you want it to be?”

“She doesn’t have a name?”