Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 167204 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 557(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167204 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 557(@300wpm)
The truth doesn’t matter, only what I’m going to tell people.
Deciding I need to bolster his faith in me, I add, “I have no reason to talk about you or any of Killian’s friend. I have no reason to… to suspect anything.”
“No?” he asks, skimming a hand down my side.
I suck in a breath, deeply uncomfortable being touched like that by someone who isn’t Killian. “No,” I say shakily.
“Do you know anything about the secret societies on campus?”
“Only what I’ve heard around campus,” I mutter. “Nothing substantial.”
“Have you heard of the Blue Bloods?”
My heart sinks, and I try like hell to control my expression. “Yeah, sure. People talk about them sometimes, but I figure no one really knows what they’re talking about.” Borrowing a line from Killian, I say, “Secret societies wouldn’t stay secret for long if people who actually knew anything were running their mouths to anyone who would listen, now would they?”
His lips curve up faintly. “No. They wouldn’t.”
I swallow. “I’m… not chatty, and not informed about them, so… not a great source.”
He watches me for an excruciatingly long moment. Longer than any normal person could comfortably stare at another person, and it makes my skin crawl.
“Do you like Killian?” he finally asks.
My heart flips over, but I nod. “Yes,” I say softly.
“You care for him?”
“I do.”
“If required to, would you cover for him?”
I don’t mean to hesitate, and I flinch when I realize I did. “Y-Yes, I… I mean, if there was a reason to. If I needed to.”
“Even if he betrayed you?”
I gasp softly, feeling as if he scooped out my insides.
But I guess that question makes sense. If the Blue Bloods are worried about keeping their dirty secrets, and a member shares with a girl he’s seeing, it makes sense to make sure she’d still keep her mouth shut if he fucked her over.
“Yes,” I say slowly, but not uncertainly. “Even if he betrayed me.”
“There are things you don’t know about Killian,” he tells me, walking around the side of the table, kicking a chair out of his way as keeps going until he’s down by my legs. “Things you wouldn’t like.”
I don’t know what to say to that. “Nobody’s perfect,” I say, since that seems fairly broad.
“You may fantasize about love and family. Judging from my observations about you so far, I’d say you do.”
I’m not sure if that one requires an answer, but I give him one just in case. “I suppose so.”
He slides a hand up my leg, pushing the fabric of my nightgown higher.
I hear boots on the ground, one of the guys moving off to the side, away from where he was standing with a view of my feet.
I guess it’s Silvan, but he doesn’t say anything to stop Hex, so I’m not sure it matters.
“Killian dreams about something different,” he tells me, squeezing my thigh. “He believes that in order to live happily ever after, he needs money and power, the ability to bend the world to his will. Killian believes he must always be able to control the outcome, and you need power to do that. The more the better.”
I would argue even with immense power there are some things you can’t control, but this isn’t a philosophical debate, so I don’t volunteer my opinion.
Hex goes on, “Killian is married to his ambition, Brynn. He may want you. He may even care for you. But in the very best of circumstances, you will never be more than his mistress.”
Jesus, he really knows how to reach deep and rip the hopes and dreams right out of you, doesn’t he?
I swallow, hating his words, but not believing them, either.
“Would that be enough for you?” he finally asks.
No.
That would never be enough for me.
But no is the wrong answer.
And the truth doesn’t matter, only the perception of it that he leaves with.
So I swallow, and I take a slow, steady breath, and I lie through my fucking teeth. “Yes.”
Hex releases my thigh and I hear a chair near the base of the table scrape the floor as he moves it away. Then my heart beats a little harder when he climbs up on the table with me. He prowls forward until his hands are planted on the table beside my shoulders, his knees straddling me. He looks down at me, and I try not to let him smell my fear as I meet his gaze, but that’s impossible.
“If you change your mind, are you prepared to be a good girl anyway?”
I nod slowly, my gaze never leaving his.
“Yeah?”
I nod more fervently.
His eyes dance with a mix of malice and amusement when he asks, “Are you sure?”
I swallow and nod more, feeling a bit like a bobblehead, but I’ll do whatever he wants me to do. I just want to be cut loose and let out of this beautiful hell.