Page 84 of Ly to Me

“Carver, I don’t…I don’t understand. I didn’t leave town again.”

“You still left.” He hung his head, bracing his body on the hood. “You weren’t there when I woke up. I showed you what we could be, and here you are, talkin’ about leavin’ all over again.”

My brows furrowed. “The Agreement between us ends after thirty days,” I said to his back. “You wrote that in there.”

He shook his head and started chuckling. “The only thing that ends after thirty days is your desire to stay. Once you have your money, you’ll be gone. Just like you just said.” He pushed himself off the truck and turned to lean his back against it, his arms and legs crossing. “Trust me. I reread that contract over a hundred times, and nowhere in there does it say it has to end.”

My cheeks heated as he waited for an answer. When I stayed silent for too long, he started raising fingers with every point as he clarified, “Article One says it has to look real. Article Two says you’ll live under my roof for—”

“The duration…” I murmured.

He nodded, and continued, “Article Three says you get your money after thirty days. Article Four, you follow my rules and you get a safeword. And Article Five—”

“Consummation within thirty days,” I finished and swallowed. Hard.

He studied me, waiting to see what I’d do. Only problem was, not even I knew that.

“Was this all to trap me here?” Was what I came up with. I may have felt trapped in the beginning, but now…now it was like calling it that was just a lifeline to help explain this madness. To why he’d write something with such a big fucking loophole that I hadn’t considered itnotending.

The muscle ticking in his jaw gave me my answer before his fingers wrapped around my throat all over again. His lips brushed over mine. “You’re one to talk.” He released my throat and grabbed my wrist, pulling me to the passenger side door of his truck.

“What are you doing?” He yanked the door open and lifted me into the seat, then buckled the seatbelt before I could settle my ass into the cushion. “Hey!” I shouted.

The door shut in my face, and then Car rounded the truck. When he got in, he double-checked my seatbelt.

“I think you secured it enough,” I grunted, smacking his hand away from me. “Tell me what the fuck you’re doing.” Carver jammed his key in and cranked up the AC, aiming the vents all toward me. “We can’t just leave my car here, and you can’t just tell me that this might not be ending in twenty-two days.”

“Could you be pregnant right now, Ly?”

The question stole most words from my brain. “What?”

He turned to face me in his seat, forearm flexing as he gripped the steering wheel with one arm while he pointed at my stomach with the other. “I came in you last night. Many times. So many times that you might not believe I’ve never fucking done that before in my life. And you never once questioned it, or if you did, you didn’t voice that with your husband who you were going to still leave afterward.”

I folded my arms over my chest. That’s what he meant when he said I was one to talk—he thoughtIwas trappinghim. I huffed at the thought, but when I didn’t immediately answer, he added, “I haven’t seen you take any birth control. You had nothing in your car, or purse, or fuckin’ anywhere.”

“You need to stop goin’ through my things.”

His jaw worked again. “Fine. You don’t wanna talk? I’ll force it from you.”

My body straightened, and like the traitorous little thing she’d become, my pussy clenched at the thought of what he’d do.

“And my car?” I repeated, watching the sedan fade from view.

He tapped on his phone screen. A deep voice filled the truck. “It’s a bit early for you, ain’t it?”

Hayes.

“I’m sending you an address. I need you to get the car from the lot and deliver it to my house in a week.”

I glared at the phone, and as I went to open my mouth, Carver shot his own look at me. My mouth snapped shut.

“Time?” Hayes asked.

Not a singlewhy.

“Doesn’t matter. My wife will be there. Make sure the tank only has enough to go ten miles, at best.”

“Got it.” I waited for Hayes to question the ‘my wife’ part, but it never came. Of course, he knew already. “Anything else?”