Page 48 of The Psychopaths

I assume they’re keeping tabs on me at the request of my mother, but I’ve never bothered asking. It would only embarrass us both.

After a moment, there’s a subtle shift in the air temperature, and the hair on the back of my neck stands on end. Looking up from the book, I find Arson standing in the doorway. His presence makes everything seem smaller.

Shit.

For one moment, I can’t believe he’s really here, and then reality slaps me in the face, and shock gives way to fear.

What the hell is he doing here?He wears my stepbrother’s face like a mask, so perfect, it almost fools me.

Almost.He shuts the door quietly behind him, eyes locked on mine. I jump from the seat, needing to put as much distance between us as possible.

“Relax,” he says, like it’s a joke. “No need to run.”

My legs go stiff. “What are you doing here? Back to threaten me again?” I hate how my voice shakes.From fear? Arousal?A heady mix of both makes my knees weak.

“Because it’s my house as much as it is yours,” he replies, walking in like he owns the place. He moves with lazy precision—too calm, too measured. A panther stretching its legs. There’s something coiled in his limbs, in his tone. It shoots my heart against the cage of my ribs like a trapped bird.

“This isn’t your house. You don’t belong here. Now tell me what you want.”

His smile is the gleaming edge of a razor blade. “To talk.”

I don’t like that.Don’t like how eerily similar he and Aries look. How it feels like I’m talking to Aries, when my brain knows that I’m not. “What is there to talk about? Unless you want to explain to me why you locked up your twin brother and impersonated him for weeks, we have nothing to talk about.”

He practically rolls his eyes. “You make it sound so dramatic.”

“Dramatic?” I snap, voice a little too loud. “You kidnapped him. That’s not dramatic. It’s illegal.”

“Yet…you didn’t tell anyone.” He fires the words back with a raised eyebrow.

The allegation slices through me like a knife. He’s not wrong. I haven’t told anyone, but it isn’t to spare him. Without evidence, without knowing what I’m walking into, I can’t start speaking nonsense. No one will believe me. I don’t have to explain that to him, though.

“You’ve had days,” he continues, voice dropping. “Hours to spill the truth.”

Hours to consider how he would punish me this time when he caught me.

I take a step back and stumble as my heel catches on the lip of the rug. With him this close, it’s hard to remind myself he isn’t Aries. My body reacts to his proximity like he’s a live wire, but my brain screamsWARNING!

“Why is that, Lilian?” His hazel gaze pins me to the floor. “Why haven’t you said a single word?” I try to think of a decent excuse, but nothing comes to mind.Think, say something.“Afraid of what I’ll do? Worried I’ll hurt you?”

My throat tightens. “I’m not scared of you, so if you came here to intimidate me into keeping quiet, it won’t work.”

He prowls forward, and for some stupid reason, I don’t move. I don’t even try to escape him. Probably because in some sick and twisted way, I don’t want to escape him. I want him to catch me and sink his teeth into my skin. “I’m not here to keep you quiet. You’ve already proven to me that you aren’t a risk.”

I don’t contradict him. Let him think I pose no threat. Then, once I have enough information, I can prove just how wrong he was, because I’m going to do whatever’s necessary to free Aries.

“If that’s true, then why are you here?” I almost regret asking the question, afraid to know the truth.

“To give you a reward, of course.”

My pulse spikes. “What does that mean?”

“It means that I’m going to give you pleasure instead of punishment this time.” The smile he gives me is terrifying. No matter what I’ve done since that night, I can’t get it out of my head. He’d fucked my throat raw, and I let him. I-I enjoyed it in some twisted, fucked-up back corner of my brain. The only thing I hate is that I thought I’d been giving Aries my first blow job...not his psychotic brother.

“I don’t want anything from you,” I say.

The words are firm, but my voice shakes. It wavers because I’m lying, because my body remembers things I wish it didn’t, and he knows it. Arson takes a step closer, the floor creaking faintly beneath his boots. The scent of him reaches me before he does—dark spice and danger, smoke and skin.

Resist him, fight the desire rushing through your veins.

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