by Nicole Fox
Caleb wraps his arm around Lily and grins up at Cora, ever the charmer. “She was just clarifying your meaning. No harm meant.”
“Even if there was harm meant, what the hell are you going to do about it?” I ask, walking over and squeezing myself between Caleb and Lily.
Cora does not want to mess with me tonight, and she knows it.
Regardless of how she feels about Lily, I still have shit on her. Unless she wants everyone to know about her almost-baby with Viktor, she better keep her distance.
So, she grabs her biker and wheels him into the kitchen to make some drinks.
I lean in and press my lips to Lily’s ear. “We could always leave and get a hotel room.”
“I’ve had enough of hotel rooms for a lifetime.” She reaches over and squeezes my knee. “Plus, I’ve waited this long. I can wait a little longer.”
“I can’t.”
She squints one eye at me, smiling. “You have barely touched me all night.”
“And I’m still dying to get you alone,” I say. “Imagine how much worse it would be if I hadn’t kept my distance.”
Her cheeks flush a delicious pink, pleased to know I’m in as much pain as she is. I bite the corner of my lip to keep back a smile.
Cora strolls back into the room with a plastic cup in her hand and her biker’s arm draped over her shoulder. He follows behind her, going wherever she leads, though I can’t help but notice his eyes keep flicking over in my direction.
At first, I think he is looking at Lily, but it becomes apparent after a while that he is watching me.
When Viktor suggests Truth or Dare, everyone groans collectively, but the Hell Prince stands up and points to me. “Truth or Dare.”
I feign thinking about it for a moment. “How about … you fuck off.”
“Sounds like you want truth to me.” He is smiling, swaggering around the couch and plopping down across from me like we are old friends. He leans forward, elbows on his knees, his bloodshot eyes on me. “Let’s start with an easy one: what happened to Dallas Martin?”
The conversations around us go quiet, and it is obvious the asshole thinks he is clever. His date, however, looks nervous. Cora knows what I can do to both of them.
“That’s not good party chatter, Ryan,” she says, nudging him.
“Shut up,” he snaps. “Let the rich boy answer.”
“Fuck off,” I snarl, leaning back into the couch cushions, cradling Lily into my side. She has gone oddly still, but I just hope her face isn’t an open book like it normally is.
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I don’t owe you an answer.”
Ryan shrugs. “I don’t know. Everyone knows Dallas was last seen at your house getting in a fight with you. That seems pretty suspicious.”
“Everyone doesn’t know shit,” Viktor says.
“The Hell Princes know a lot more than you think.” Ryan sits back like he just dropped a bomb.
Truth be told, he kind of did.
I feel the couch shift as Caleb and J.C. turn towards me. Viktor’s nostrils flare as he stares at Ryan, a tell-tale sign that he is confused and trying to make up his mind. Noah is thankfully in the other room, because I could not handle the weight of his judgmental gaze on top of everything else.
Lily is still sitting rigidly beside me.
“Like where your girlfriend likes to go for her runs,” Ryan says, grinning. When his eyes slip from mine to peruse Lily’s outstretched leg resting on the coffee table, I want to lunge across the room and gouge them out. “Remember me? We ran into each other in the park the other night.”
At that, Cora whips her head towards him, brows furrowed. “You know her?”
Ryan nods like it isn’t a big deal, but it is clear he likes being the center of attention. All the Hell Princes are the same. They like to cause a mess and have eyes on them.
Cora glares at Lily as though any of this is her fault. “How would you know anything about her? Does her mom clean your house? Or did she suck you off, too?”
Her red mouth turns up in a smile, her eyes flicking towards me to see if her words hit their mark, and they do.
But I’m too mad to care about appearances. “Watch your fucking mouth,” I tell her.
“Or what?” Cora asks, sneering, though the fear in her eyes is obvious. She knows she is pushing the bounds.
“Leave.” I press a kiss to Lily’s temple as I stand up, finger pointed at the door. “Both of you. Get out of my house. Now.”
Cora blinks up at me and then turns towards Viktor, like maybe he’ll offer support, but he just wraps his arm around Melody’s shoulders and looks in the other direction.
“No one wants you here. Either of you. So leave.”
Neither of them make a move to leave. I am done with all of this stupid drama.
I reach across the coffee table and grab Cora’s arm, starting to pull her towards the door.
Suddenly, Ryan jumps up and grabs my wrist. “Let my girl go.”
“Your girl?” I snort. “Well, tell your girl to get the hell out of my house before I throw her out.”
“You’re an asshole, Finn,” Cora says. “You’ve let this trash pussy cloud your judgment. You don’t even know which way is up anymore.”
I grit my teeth, growling out my next words. “Shut your mouth and leave.”
Cora opens her mouth to argue, but Ryan presses a hand to the center of her back and shoves her forward. “It’s fine, baby. It’s fine. I’ll take care of him later.”
“Oh, will you?” I ask, sarcasm thick in my voice. “I’m quaking in my shoes.”
Ryan looks over his shoulder as they leave. “Just remember later that I warned you.”
When the door shuts behind them, the party is quiet for a few more seconds, no one sure how to proceed.
Finally, Viktor barks out a laugh and jumps to his feet. “Bitch left her vodka here. I call dibs!”
He runs into the kitchen to make a drink, Caleb and Noah set up beer pong on the dining room table, and the party turns out to be mildly enjoyable. More than I thought, at least.
“Are you okay?” I whisper in Lily’s ear later. Her face is warm from the alcohol in her system. Even I’m slightly less steady on my feet than normal, my usual rough edges dulled.
“I’m fine.”
I spin her towards me so we are eye to eye. “Are you sure? Because that idiot just admitted to following you the other night, and you never mentioned it to me.”
“I got away, so I didn’t think it was worth mentioning,” she says, lifting her chin defiantly.
I sigh. “I can’t protect you if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”
Lily’s caramel-brown eyes soften, her pink mouth tipping into a smile. “You want to protect me?”
Alarm bells go off in my head. Warning signals that I’ve said too much. That Lily is looking at me with eyes that are too full of admiration. That I need to do something to remind her of who I am.
Time to take care of that, then.
I grab her arm and pull her after me out of the kitchen.
“Yo, where are you going?” Viktor yells.
I lift my free hand in a wave over my shoulder. “To fuck.”
There are cheers from the party behind us as we mount the stairs, but the only thing I can focus on is Lily’s small hand in mine, still squeezing my fingers.
37
Finn
I hear the fabric rip as I pull her dress off, but I don’t care.
I don’t care about anything except filling whatever crack Lily has caused in my foundations.
Cora announced to everyone that I’d gone soft, and I can’t even argue with her. Lily is a project. A mission. She isn’t supposed to be someone whose opinion I care about. She isn’t supposed to be someone I worry about.
What is wrong with me? What is wrong with me?
“Are you okay?” Lily asks, reaching up and laying a warm palm to my cheek. “You look frantic.”
> I pull away from her hand, shove her dress down her hips to reveal her naked bottom half, and then spin her around.
Lily doesn’t even hesitate.
The moment I turn her around, she leans forward and grips the edge of the bed, shoving her hips towards me.
She isn’t afraid of me or nervous of what I’ll do. Despite everything I’ve done, everything I’ve told her, she trusts me.
Without thinking, I bring my arm high over my head and then swing.
My hand cracks across the smooth skin of her ass loudly enough that I wouldn’t be surprised if my guests downstairs can hear it.
Lily gasps and then arches her back, presenting herself for me even more fully.
She doesn’t understand. No matter how many times I tell her not to trust me, she doesn’t listen.
Someone needs to teach her a lesson.
I slap her again, hitting the red handprint I left the first time.
Then I bring up my other hand and slap her other side.
The skin of her backside ripples with each blow, and I slap her again and again.
Until my hand starts to sting.
Until it goes numb.
“Finn,” she whimpers, her fists balling up in the sheets. “Finn.”
When I finish, my chest is heaving and my arms are tired, but I don’t feel any better. I don’t feel more in control or more powerful.
I feel like a failure. A fucking failure.
Lily looks over her shoulder at me, and then stands up, eyes wide with alarm. “What’s going on, Finn? What is it?”
I shake my head. I don’t want to talk about this. I can’t. There’s nothing to say. “Put your clothes on. Go home.”
“No.”
I look up at her from beneath my brows. “Go home, Lily.”
She crosses her arms over her chest. “No.”
I growl. “I’m serious.”
“Have I ever done anything to suggest I’m not serious?” she asks, using my line from earlier.
It would make me smile if I wasn’t so out of sorts.
Lily stands in front of me and reaches up to touch my chest, but I back away. I expect her to give up and walk out, but she follows my every step, never once letting there be more than a few inches between us.
“Talk to me,” she begs, finally cornering me. Lily grabs my neck gently and turns my face to hers. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing,” I lie. “I just don’t want you here anymore.”
Hurt flashes in her eyes, and then she drops to her knees in front of me. With deft fingers, she unzips my pants and slides her hand inside my boxers.
I’m hard. She raises a brow as if to dare me to lie to her again, and then her mouth is on me.
Her lips curl around my tip, and she welcomes me into the warmth of her mouth, swirling her tongue over my length.
My head falls back against the wall, and I groan, frustrated with myself for not being able to resist her. For fucking everything up so royally.
If Lily really knew who I am—everything I’ve done—she wouldn’t be on her knees in front of me. As much as I want to pretend otherwise, she is better than I am. She deserves more than me.
I shouldn’t care about that.
But I do.
I grab her hair and thrust gently into her mouth, grunting with every stroke, with every slide of her tongue.
When she stands up again, she grabs my hand and pulls me towards the bed. I resist, and Lily presses her body to mine, kissing a line from my neck to my jaw.
“Don’t pull away from me…” she murmurs.
She swirls my earlobe into her mouth and wraps her hand around my base, pulling me towards the bed by my cock.
“Don’t pull away from me because you’re scared,” she finishes.
Scared of what? I want to ask.
But on some level, we both know what I’m scared of.
I’m scared of loving this girl.
And that fear only grows when she presses me back on the bed and crawls over me. For once, I’m flat on my back, watching while she seeks out her own pleasure, while she takes what she wants.
Lily settles over my hips and positions me at her entrance. Then, she looks into my face and slowly slides down.
It is heaven. Bit by painfully delicious bit, she lets me inside of her, she takes me in, and I want to grab her hips and slam myself into the hilt. But when I reach for her, Lily grabs my hands and presses them above my head.
“Don’t move,” she says, bringing us both back to the first night we spent in my room. “Hold still.”
Unbelievably, I listen.
I keep my hands above my head and watch as Lily rides me with her lithe, toned body. I watch as she circles her hips and arches her back, as she slides her finger over her own center, touching herself where she needs to feel good.
It’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever witnessed.
When she comes, I feel her body clench around me, and that is all it takes.
Her pleasure is enough to send me over the edge, and we are both left gasping and trembling in a heap when it’s over.
“See?” Lily whispers, her cheek resting on my chest, her fingers drawing circles in my chest hair. “There is nothing to be afraid of.”
I kiss the top of her head and shake my head.
Oh, how incredibly wrong she is.
38
Finn
When I wake up, there is a heavy weight on my chest.
For a moment, I’m confused, until I take a breath and smell vanilla.
It’s Lily.
She is breathing deeply and evenly, head on my shoulder, one of her arms curled around my side.
She is the only girl who has ever spent the night in my room, and now she is the only girl who has ever fallen asleep on my chest.
Honestly, I never thought myself capable of something this tender, but Lily is making me question everything.
About myself and everyone else.
Then I hear a bang downstairs. Distant and soft, but a bang nonetheless.
I realize that I never went back down to the party after Lily and I came upstairs. Usually, the guys are pretty good about clearing out and cleaning up, but if someone is still down there moving around, they are probably too drunk to function. I need to make sure they aren’t wrecking shit.
When I slide out from Lily’s arm, she sighs, but doesn’t wake up. I pull on my boxers, shorts, and a T-shirt, and pad barefoot down the stairs.
The living room is dark aside from the glow from the television. Some family sitcom is on with the volume turned all the way down. I can see Viktor and J.C. sleeping on opposite ends of the big sectional. Noah is in the armchair, and Caleb is on the floor with every single blanket from the hall closet underneath him.
I roll my eyes and turn to head upstairs.
But then I hear the thumping again.
Only, this time, I realize it is coming from outside.
I walk quietly around the living room and pull open the front door, thinking someone from the party might be drunk and trying to drive. I’m not their mom, but a kid has already been hurt at one of my parties, and I don’t need another.
I walk down the sidewalk to the drive in my bare feet, ready to curse out whatever asshat woke me up, but as soon as I turn around the corner of the garage, I stop cold.
Standing in the driveway is a line of motorcycles with Hell Princes on each.
All their eyes are on me.
39
Lily
I’m running down the trail in the park. It’s dark, but I can see everything clearly
The branches above me that used to look like spindly hands reaching down to pluck me up are clearly twigs and leaves.
The shadows moving along the edges of my vision are gone.
It’s just me and the trail and running.
I pump my arms and breathe in deeply, breathing in the damp Texas air. It feels fresh. Clear.
Then, I turn the corner, and I see him.
>
Finn.
He is standing in the middle of the path, arms crossed over his chest, mouth tilted up in a confident smirk. He is standing there like he’s been waiting for me.
“Finn?”
“Finally,” he says, holding out a hand.
I don’t even hesitate. I reach for his hand, eager to touch him. He’s my Finn. Mine. And no matter what has happened in the past, I can see our future together, and it’s bright.
Finn has some issues, but hell, I have more than my share, too. We can work through them together, fix them together. He can teach me to be strong, and I can teach him to be weak. We can balance each other out and make it together.
And I can tell him all of that as soon as I grab his hand.
Finn’s fingers close around mine, but they are ice cold. Immediately, a chill moves through my body, sending shivers down my spine. The warmth from the air is vanishing.
“Finn?”
When I look up again, his blue eyes are pitch-black. He spins me towards him so my back is against his chest and grabs the lock necklace resting against my collarbone. With a single tug, he shatters the chain links and tears it from my neck.
“Why are you doing this? What is happening?”
“Nothing,” he breathes in my ear. “It already happened.”
I don’t know what he means, but he pushes me forward into the foliage.
When I break through, I’m standing in the clearing along the trail.
Except, it’s just like it was that night months ago.
The girl is on the table. Nico Barber is standing over her, a sadistic smile on his face.
Except this time, I see them all standing with him. The people I just spent the evening with. The people I thought were my friends.
J.C., Viktor, Noah, and Caleb.
And Finn.
They were all there that night.
I open my mouth to scream, but nothing comes out.
When I wake up, I’m lying in the middle of the bed, legs stretched out to either side.