Page 34 of Hayes
His gorgeous smile drops. His eyes flick over my face, concerned something’s wrong.
“Lilith? Are you—”
I don’t let him finish his sentence. I press my lips against his.
I don’t think. For once, I follow my heart instead of my need for revenge.
His lips don’t hesitate for a second the moment I press mine against his. Both our eyes stay open on each other as we part our lips simultaneously.
Our tongues press into each other, sweeping without any hesitation. It feels like so much more than I remember. He kisses like he doesn’t have a care in the world. It’s like all he’s thinking about is me in this moment, and this is all he could ever want.
I desperately try to match him to let go of all the heartache I’ve endured. I kiss away the pain. I kiss away the feeling of my life only being about one thing. I kiss him like he’s the only thing that matters in the world.
Hayes makes it easy. He opens his soul to me with each kiss, and his body gently presses against mine until I can feel all of him as his hand strokes my hip. But he doesn’t take anything further. He doesn’t rip my clothes off or slide his hand underneath. He doesn’t force me to do anything when he easily could. I’m still handcuffed, and as Leo said—he owns me.
Leo’s words come back to me. “I’m going to enjoy watching him break you, whore. He does like to share his toys after they’re trained…”
Have I gotten Hayes all wrong? Is he the kind of guy who lures women in with his charming smile and easygoing demeanor, only to break them and then share them with all his buddies?
I stop the kiss abruptly.
Hayes stops the second I do. He doesn’t ask what the kiss, or the sudden end to the kiss, was about. He doesn’t push me.
“No one ever taught you how to get out of handcuffs?” Hayes asks.
“No one ever taught me anything. Everything I’ve learned, I taught myself.”
He looks at me with an intensity I haven’t seen on his face before. The playfulness is gone, replaced with sorrow that ripples through me. Then, in a flash, he’s back to grinning.
“Well, consider this a free lesson.” He reaches into the hair beneath the bun on top of his head and pulls out a bobby pin.
I raise my eyebrows at him.
He chuckles at my expression. “Always carry a bobby pin in your hair. It has many uses, and you never know when you need one.”
He places it in one of my hands.
“Now remove the tips and then straighten it.”
I do as he says.
“Good, now bend one end at a 90-degree angle and then see if you can get it into the lock.”
It takes me a few tries to get the metal end into the lock, but I finally succeed.
“The next part is where you need patience.”
“I’m patient. You don’t think I’m patient?”
He laughs. “No, murderous one, you aren’t patient. If you were patient, then Daniel and Harvey would still be alive. You wouldn’t be in this mess, and you’d have a plan to kill all of them at once.”
I frown. “I’m patient.” I insert the bobby pin into the lock and swirl it around, trying to force the lock to open.
Hayes gives me a knowing look, but he doesn’t criticize me.
Frustration boils beneath my skin as my wrists scrape against the metal. I’ve broken free of restraints before, but always by manipulating my wrist to create space for my hand to get free. I’ve never picked a lock.
I wince as the metal digs into my skin. Hayes’s fingers move over mine, stilling me.
