Page 71 of Liars and Liaisons

A distant part of me wonders what the hell happened during our time apart. Another doesn’t particularly want to know.

I don’t have time to recover from the whiplash of his emotions before he’s bending me backward, pressing me into the dining table, and shoving his lips onto mine.

* * *

Oddly,the nature of my presence at the secluded James estate hasn’t come back up. Maybe because Nate seems to believe that I came for him, or maybe because after he assaulted me in the dining room, he’s spent the majority of his time forcing me into his orbit and explaining whyhe’shere.

“Grayson’s a ticking time bomb,” he explains one day as he lounges on the patio furniture in one of the mansion’s loggias, wiping a pair of Ray-Bans on his red T-shirt. “My dad wanted me to come out here and keep an eye on things. You know how it is with family.”

I don’t say anything from my spot at the loggia’s edge, where I’m repotting some orange begonias. My gaze keeps flickering to the lake, everything that happened the night I killed that would-be assailant playing on a loop in my head.

It’s been over a week since then, and I haven’t slept much at all. Half of me is trying to stay prepared for another attack while the other half fears a much different onslaught entirely.

Especially since they never found that man’s body. Everything had been cleaned up, as if it’d never happened, and I can’t stop wondering if I imagined it all.

Though I definitely didn’t imagine his blood coating my skin or Grayson’s head between my thighs after. I didn’t imagine biting him and finding some sort of comfort in the blood flowing from him, like a small, warm, wet reminder that I was alive and so was he, and no matter what else had happened, that was a victory.

I didn’t imagine the dark brown water circling the shower drain.

Grayson hasn’t been seen by staff or otherwise since I made an absolute ass of myself in front of him. Nate doesn’t seem concerned at all, but I’m keenly aware of the fact that not a single note has echoed through the halls of the mansion. Even the ghosts seem to be kept at bay, waiting for their host to return.

The estate feels empty somehow even though it’s not. Everywhere I go, I feel eyes on me, but they’re nothing compared to the real thing.

“Dad has half a mind to write him out of the will and ship him off to some rehab facility in Montana, but his mother won’t agree. Plus, they need him to sign off on in-patient care when they can’t prove he’s a threat to himself or society.”

I pause. “Has he done something to make you think he’s either of those things?”

Nate chuckles, sliding his glasses on. “I don’t expect you to understand my brother, babe. You just got here, and he’s… very good at hiding the fact that he’s fucking insane. Runs in the family, I guess. You should’ve seen how my nephew acted a few years back when this random girl he met almost tanked his whole career, and now, he’s dating the bitch. Pathetic, if you ask me.”

Frowning, I glance at him over my shoulder. “What’s pathetic about falling in love?”

“Nothing, as long as you sign a prenup.” I give him a flat look, and he sits up in his chair, laughing. “Oh, come on, babe. It was a joke.”

“Jokes are supposed to be funny.”

Groaning, he gets out of his seat and walks over, kneeling on the ground beside me. With both hands, he starts shoveling soil into the blue plastic pot, messing up the levels and making me lose track of the bulbs.

“I don’t know why you’re bothering with this,” he says, patting the top of the dirt while I stare at it in silence. “Grayson’ll just destroy it whenever we leave.”

When I don’t answer, re-situating each bulb so it isn’t buried too deep, he sighs and runs his hands through his thick, dark locks.

“I’ve missed you, you know,” he tries. His hand cups my chin, forcing me to turn and look at him. “You’ve barely said three words to me this entire time. Don’t you… aren’t you curious what I’ve been doing all this time?”

“What have you been doing?”

“Working mostly. Moving finances, signing talent to an unofficial agency, working on cutting-edge proposals for James Entertainment. It’s only a matter of time before Dad makes me president of the company.”

My brows lift. “That’s a lot in only a few months.”

“Well”—he nudges me with a shoulder—“demise is a long game in the making. World domination takes time, babe. It doesn’t help that Grayson has been on my ass, suspicious about everything, doing whatever he can to make me miserable.”

“Sounds like him,” I say, immediately wishing I could swallow the words once they’ve passed my lips.

Puzzlement etches between his eyebrows. “What?”

I clear my throat. “From what you’ve told me about him, I mean.”

Silence ebbs between us. My heart scrapes against my ribs, and in the distance, a goat bleats so loud that I have to physically suppress a startled jump.

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