Page 9 of The Secrets We Bury

I’m not like him. I’m not like any of them, but if I pretend that I am long enough, perhaps it’ll come true.

I grew up surrounded by obsession—money, materials, image, reputation—and yet, I never understood any of it until this moment. Lex’s gaze is poetry and dark yearning. I picture him looking at someone else like this and my hands curl sharply against him, my nails digging in. He sucks in a breath but doesn’t shove me away.

Mine. The word screams through my head. He’s fucking mine and no one else can have this part of him. If anyone else tries, I’ll kill them.

“What are you thinking, baby?” Lex’s low, gravelly tone shoots shivers down my spine. Loosening my fingers so that I don’t hurt him further, I turn in his arms, swinging my leg around the other side of him until I’m straddling him and we’re facing each other.

It takes me a long time to find the words to answer him. These feelings are a disease. Even acknowledging their existence will mean it’s too late for me.

I was done for before I even walked into Lex’s office.

“What would you do for me?”

Beneath me, Lex’s body goes rock still. “Anything.” The word is a harsh rasp.

I grip his hair and tilt his head back. My brow arches sardonically. “Anything?” I repeat.

He stares back at me, unblinking. “I would die for you.”

Sweet words, but it’s not what I want to hear. My grasp tightens and he sucks in a breath, his lids lowering until he peers at me through the thinnest slits of his eyes.

“What else?”

The cock beneath me rubs insistently against the crotch of my borrowed boxers. My lips twitch, but I lift up, not letting him keep up the distracting motions. He grits his teeth.

“Lie. Cheat. Steal. You name it and I will do it. I am your fucking dog, Juliet. Whatever you want, it’s already yours—all you have to do is tell me to get it for you.”

“If I want blood?”

“You’ll have it.”

“Revenge?”

“Done.”

“What if I want to hurt you?”

He moans as if the mere idea of me taking a blade to his skin is enough to bring him to the edge of pleasure. I never realized how heady this kind of power over a person could feel. It’s the type of drug no amount of money could buy.

Bending towards him, I part my lips and lick over the seam of his mouth. His chest rumbles and he tries to lean up to kiss me again, but I back away. The sound he makes is desperate and needy.

“Tell me the rest,” I whisper as I move to his jaw and press a little kiss there.

“The rest?”

I want to know what Nolan was talking about, but more than that, Lex promised me answers and we haven’t gotten to those yet.

“You’ve met with my father,” I remind him. Another kiss to his throat, right over his pulse, has him swallowing sharply.

“Like this?”

I drop down into his lap and he hisses out a curse. His hands find my hips, dig in, and he rolls his own body into my own.

“Consider it part of your punishment,” I say.

“Does that mean you’ll forgive me?”

I cease kissing him and pull away. “Do you want to askmequestions, or do you want me to keep going?”