Page 53 of Feed Your Fiends

“You hate my parents,” I say matter-of-factly.

“No. I abhor them, yet their match made in hell created you. You’re my angel, Elle. I know that’s why my mother gave Jarett the time of day.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I mutter, trying not to play into his words. But they are playing repeatedly in my brain.My angel.

“She led me to you. She knew I’d need you.”

I shake my head against his chest. “You know that’s not true.”

“It’s my truth.”

“You think all this pain and chaos needed to happen just for you to know me? Little miss no one?”

“You’ll never understand it. You are not just someone to me. You’re my everyone.”

That burning sensation in my nose and eyes from just a half-hour ago in my old neighbourhood is back. Even my throat burns and cracks when I say, “I can’t be your everything.”

“I orbit around you. How could you not be my centre? How could there ever be any escape when we’re this intertwined?”

“You made me your centre when you started this insane revenge game.” At the last word, the floodgates reopen, and tears slip down my cheeks before I can stop them.Game. This game, this fucking game that changed my life forever. I wipe the tears away discreetly, but he catches my wrist, and we make eye contact in the rearview mirror.

“Don’t ever try to stop them. Hide them. If they’re falling, let them fall on me. Soak me, I’ll drink them all.”

A hoarse whimper escapes my throat because I want to believe him, but I can’t. Not again. Still, my lips move of their own accord. “I’m not her centre. Jaime’s. She chose him. She will always choose him.”

“I can understand her logic.”

That catches me off guard. “How?”

“Because I understand her hyperfixation. I will always choose you. Tonight, you said I was a bad friend. I love my horsemen, but I love you more. You’re my pinnacle.”

Love.

Don’t fall for it. Your parents don’t even love you, much less someone like Gant Auclair.

Don’t fall for it.

Don’t—

But then I’m leaning up and pressing my lips against his.

Make it believable,Rin had said. It feels believable because this idiocyisreal on my end. I’m hopelessly, pathetically trapped in his gravitational pull, and he’s surrounding me with a dizzying speed.

When the world finally stops spinning, I realise the car’s stopped in a dark, seemingly private garage. Is that why I was so dizzy when he kissed me? All the hairpin turns to get up here. Or was it his taste I craved in my nightmares?

Up here…

I peer over the hood, over the cement barrier, and down at the glittering city. There’s a glass lift to the left waiting for us. We’re at the penthouse.His penthouse.

I’m so busy looking at the lift that I don’t realise I’m being lifted like a child. No, like a teddy, a doll. He’s between my legs, our chests flushed. My fingers dig into his shoulders for support, and yet I never feel like I’m going to fall when I’m in his arms.

“Put me down,” I protest, but it sounds like a broken record even to my ears. He’d lifted me out of the club in front of a thousand people. Why would I think he’d drop me now when it’s just him and I and the entire city beneath our feet?

“So you can try to run again?”

“You made sure I can’t,” I snark, gazing over his shoulder at my bobbing feet, where only one filthy soft boot remains. Damn, when had I lost the other one? Before or after Jarett and Jaime? Before or after I lost my mind in his arms and my heart down his throat?

“You’ll never have to stand on them here. I’ll be your feet.”

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