Page 27 of Liar
She saw through me, but not all of me. I wondered what she’d do if she knew the truth, the lengths I’d go to to protect those I loved. Would she be proud of me? Would she fall deeper in love with me after hearing what I’d done, or would she hate me? Or, worse, fear me because she could be next?
I would never hurt her. I never hurt the ones I cared about.
Mom didn’t count.
Wrapping my arms around her frail frame, I hugged her close. I could feel her chest rise and fall underneath my shirt, my own chest bare. There was nothing better than having her in my arms, where I knew, without a doubt, she was safe.
“You know you can talk to me about anything,” she said, tilting her head to glance up at me, her grey eyes sparkling in the incandescent light. When I looked down at her, I saw sparkles in her eyes, a love that had no words. When she was with me, I had everything I could ever want.
“I know,” I said, hating that I had to lie to her. Maybe, in the future, I could tell her everything. Maybe, once the others were out of the picture, I could tell her and Declan the truth. Declan would be upset at what I’d done, but he would come to understand I’d only done it for him. Sabrina had never been right for him, not with her sleeping with our father.
Even if it was just once…once was too much.
My hands moved to her neck, and I cupped her face as I lowered my lips to hers. Kissing her softly was like tasting eternity. I never thought, never imagined I’d ever come across someone that could fit into the broken crevices of my soul, not to mention Declan’s as well. Ash fit seamlessly, and she tasted like heaven.
I hoisted her up, grabbing both legs as she wrapped her arms around me. I set Ash on the counter, her legs spread, her back arching and pushing her chest against me. The slow kiss gave way to a carnal lust only she could bring out of me. My cock practically sprang ready in my shorts, and I didn’t think, didn’t hesitate—I pulled myself out and guided my length into her, claiming her in my kitchen.
Ash tore her lips off mine to moan. I rocked in and out of her, watching her body react to mine. She truly did call out to my inner animal, to the beast I thought I had under control. She made me want to go crazy, in both the best and worst of ways. Ash was my light and my darkness, and I’d be damned if I let anyone else have her.
It was as I fucked her, as I held her close and lost myself in bodily pleasure only she could bring me, that I decided what I had to do. Didn’t know how quite yet, but I’d think up a plan. Anyone sniffing around Ash was toast, but Sawyer? Oh, for that one I had something a little different planned.
The week passed in a blur. I did what I had to do, got what I needed to get, and then, when Thursday came, I waited. You see, I knew Ash had been doing awful on her statistics, and I knew she wasn’t a B student. She wanted that A, and she’d do anything to get it, including heading into the math hall to visit a certain someone during their office hours.
I looked him up on Hillcrest’s website. Took a while to find him, since all he went by was Corey, but I eventually found his full name. Corey Weinberger. And since he was technically faculty, his office location was listed in plain view on his page online.
The first time I’d come by his office when he wasn’t there, I came to check it out. It was a busy hall, and I immediately noticed the cameras inside the building. Another day I tracked him to his car. He was a creature of habit, I’d learned, always parking in the same place.
The night I saw Ash go into that hall and stay there for over an hour, I knew something had to be done. The dinner with Sawyer was this Saturday, less than forty-eight hours away now, but that left Friday wide open.
Friday was the day.
Chapter Ten – Ash
To say I was a bundle of nerves about tomorrow would be under-exaggerating. I was totally freaked out, hardly got any sleep at all last night. Hell, I even put Declan’s tongue-skills into overdrive, wanting to overload my mind with pleasure and lull me into a sleep, but that didn’t work. All of the orgasms in the world couldn’t put me to sleep. I was too nervous.
Which was just silly, because it was Sawyer. Sawyer didn’t merit any kind of nervousness, did he?
I did miss seeing his face more often, though. His smiles—the real, full things, not those half-baked smirks he was so good at giving—were heart-stopping. Even his humor, which, at times, was aggravating beyond all belief, I missed.
Damn. I really did have it bad for Sawyer, didn’t I?
I headed across campus, my classes done for the day, returning to my dorm room. Campus had been wild with gossip today, but I hadn’t paid much attention to anybody else or whatever their supposed problems were, too buried in my own. In fact, I was so lost in my own thoughts that I failed to notice the police cars parked in front of my dorm building.
Humming to myself, I wandered to the elevator, hitting the up button. Usually I took the stairs, but taking stairs would require focus. I was too out of it to do much of anything. Even the combination of breathing, blinking, and walking was giving me trouble. Forget stairs or skateboarding.
Once the elevator let out on my floor, I stepped out, turning to head to my room. Declan should be there. If anyone could calm me down, he could—though he’d been trying all week. I was afraid my nerves were simply getting the best of me, as they sometimes did.
But hey, at least no more panic attacks, right? No more bodies.
My legs stopped the moment I spotted Declan standing in the hall, talking to a pair of female police officers. His dark brown eyes darted to me, and whatever he was in the middle of saying froze on his lips. The two women turned to look at me, and for a quick moment, I was thrown into a flashback.
Officer White and Officer Melendez, the exact same two women who’d questioned me about getting hit by that car, who were supposed to investigate Will’s stabbing. Melendez was even on my case about Ray.
Shit.
What were they doing here?
No way they could’ve found Ray. Travis assured me over and over that his family took care of it, that there would be no body to find. No, this couldn’t be about Ray. Was it about what happened with Will and Declan’s dad? Wait, that was in another district, not Hillcrest. That couldn’t be it, either.
