Page 78 of Venomous Lies
Hell, I didn’t know ifItrusted myself to take her there.
The incubus in me didn’t like to take no for an answer, and as soon as I began to spiral, it took over.
Excuses.
That was all it was, but it was my life.
Of course, it hadalwaysbeen my reality. My dark side was always right under the surface, ready to come out and play at a moment's notice.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one with secrets lurking beneath the surface.
Cassius and Isla.
What the fuck wasthatarrangement?
At first, I had thought the dream was all my imagination.I mean, it was crazy to think that Isla had some dude living in her head.
But, apparently, Islawascrazy because that was exactly the situation.
Maybe.
I thought.
Definitely something I planned on clarifying once we could talk. Not to mention all the things we needed to discuss anyway.
Another top priority question—how the fuck did she bring me here and why?
Make that two questions.
Or a million.
“Echo?”
I jolted at her husky voice, and when I looked over my shoulder, I found her staring right at me with those mismatched eyes. One hazel and one amber, they watched me closely as she carefully pushed herself up off the cool stone pavers she had slept on.
Wait… She was staring right at me?
“Can you see?” I asked, not moving. I had made myself comfortable a few feet away from her, careful not to touch any of the plants.
“I… Yes,” she struggled to reply, groaning as she stretched her body. “I shouldn’t have slept on the ground.”
“I thought about moving you, but I wasn’t sure…” I waved a hand before letting it fall uselessly on my lap.
“Let me freshen up.” She got up and started walking away with a slight limp. “Give me a minute, then I’m holding you to the promise that we’d be talking.”
Thankfully, she didn’t leave me alone with my thoughts for too long, rejoining me after just a few minutes. She satback down about where she had been sleeping, her black hair falling into her face. Unfortunately, it provided no break from her gaze, which was still steadily trained on me.
“You flinched away from me when we tried to start sorting through things at self-defense class,” she began. Leave it to her to go right for the throat.
“I don’t— I don’t have the best track record with the women in my life,” I replied gruffly, my throat tightening as I pushed away memories better left alone. “Incubi are viewed as less than among my kind—useless, really. To her eternal shame, my mother had two sons, and I paid the price for that shame every day of my life.”
I rubbed the back of my neck as my gaze traveled around the greenhouse, not ready to see Isla’s expression.
The story was a long way from over anyway, not that I’d tell hereverything. Some things I’d take with me to my grave and beyond.
But she’d earned the right for something.
“So yelling or shouting by a woman, specifically, can?—”
