Page 90 of Thorns of Deceit

The unread pregnancy test that still sat back in my apartment. My friends were MIA, or maybe I was, I couldn’t decide. My thoughts were racing, and I was struggling to keep up. I needed a quiet moment to breathe and figure out where the hell I stood in all of this.

The weight of our shared past hung heavy, and no matter how much I tried to shake it off, I couldn’t forget my promise to my mom. But then there was last night. A significant amount of resistance had been purged, or should I say fucked, out of me.

I had no idea where to go from here.

I felt like I’d been dropped into some alternate universe where the rules didn’t apply and feelings held rank.

“Now what?” I whispered.

I could tell there was more going on in his head. “We have our wedding breakfast and a honeymoon.”

I blinked. “Don’t you think that ship has sailed?”

He shrugged as if he’d just shared the news that the sky was blue. “It’s never too late, and I’m steering the ship. Take it as a gesture of my goodwill. A fresh start.”

Never too late? A fresh start? He must be nuts.

“Aiden, you blackmailed me and forced me here. Again. There’s nothing fresh about this.”

“It’s whatever we make it out to be,” he insisted. “We could keep looking at the past and get lost in it. Or we can choose to look forward.”

“There’s too much baggage weighing us both down to just forget the past,” I said quietly.

He shook his head.

“I don’t think so. We both stayed faithful. You, thinking you’d never see me again, and me, believing you were dead. Our beginning was rough, maybe even forced, but we made the best of it. Didn’t we?”

“Maybe,” I answered vaguely, unable to move on from my mom’s death and the explosion that killed her. It started and ended with the Callahans, who led my cruel father to us. I didn’t think this could be one of those things to forgive and forget, yet my silly heart wanted to forgivehim. Havehim.

My mind fought to catch up, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt like I was drowning in contradictions. How could I accept this when the last time things between us ended, my mother was taken from me? And then there was the fact that he was threatening my friends and me. Yeah, this didn’t feel like a fresh start but a repeat of the old one.

I shifted on his lap so I could face him.

“Aiden…” I trailed off, not knowing what to say without risking more chaos. I didn’t want to accuse him of pushing me in the direction he wanted me to go.

“We’ve been here before. We’ve done this dance, and it didn’t work out. Don’t you think we should just?—”

I froze as his body tensed beneath me, the shift in his energy so sudden it felt like a deadly current between us.

“Don’t you dare say ‘end it,’ Raven,” he growled, his voice low and dangerous, the intensity in his gaze turning my blood to ice. There was no mistaking the warning in his eyes. “I swear to God, I won’t be responsible for what happens after that.”

His words hung in the air, but it wasn’t just his voice that unsettled me. It was the rawness in his tone, the edge of something dark that made my heart skip and my body burn.

And dammit, I reverted to the only thing I knew would ensure he forgot what I’d just said.

I slammed my mouth against his, bracing myself for rejection, but it was what followed that had me unraveling.

Aiden kissed me like he’d been dying and I was the only thing that could keep him alive. I wrapped my arms around his neck, but he quickly took control.

He deepened the kiss, coaxing me into slowly sliding my tongue against his, and my body melted against him.

His arm around my waist tightened, gathering me against him, and I felt how hard he was. The memory of how good his cock felt made me greedy. Or maybe crazy. Because… Iwantedhim to fuck me.

I rode his thigh and he groaned in response, nipping at my bottom lip, the long line of my body fitting against his broad, muscled one.

Aiden was hard everywhere, and while his strong, broad hands could bring so much pleasure, I also knew they could kill. Would he ever reach the point of wanting to kill me? I didn’t want to find out.

This was a violent man, raised in a violent environment, and I was at his mercy.