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From the corner of my eyes, I see Evan’s mouth fallen wide open and Willow choking ever so discreetly on her espresso martini. Sophie watches me back, as composed as ever, the stone-cold Sophie Sutton I remember well.
“What you’re describing is a relationship, Luca,” she says finally, completely matter-of-fact. “Maybe you should consider taking Evan’s advice and actually ask Willow out?”
“She’d turn me down just to spite me.”
Willow gives me the middle finger. Her fingernails are sharp and painted a glossy, satisfying black. I want to know what they’d feel like digging into my back, slicing into my flesh.
“Who’s the coward now?” she says. “Why don’t you just let it go? We both know you were going to end the contract anyway.”
I give her a cold smile. “Then why did you run away?”
“Because you didn’t deserve me.”
“Ineverdeserved you. It never bothered you before—none of it did. You didn’t run when Cerberus bit you or when I had a knife at your neck or when I hunted you. None of it scared you. You’d let me choke you and whip you and fuck you unconscious without ever flinching—but the moment I told you I love you, you got so fucking scared you couldn’t even look me in the facebefore you pulled the trigger. You ran because you were scared. Because you’re acoward.”
Willow watches me, and my words land against her like feathers on a wall of marble, leaving no trace of impact. But she’s silent, for a moment, silent as death under the weight of my eyes and my words.
And then she stands, dabbing her lips with a corner of her napkin.
“I’m going for a cig.” She turns to look at me. “Just be a good boy, Luca,” she says, and then she tosses her napkin down on the tablet, “and end the fucking contract.”
55
Dark Alter
Willow
The smoking area signslead me to the rooftop, and I head there so fast I almost crash into a waiter. When I emerge into the night air, a blast of wind almost steals the breath out of my lungs—if there is any left to steal.
Footsteps follow close behind me, and I try to ignore them as I hurry past the string lights and wooden lattices of the rooftop areas towards the ledge. I place a cigarette between my lips with a shaking hand, but Luca’s cold fingers pluck it away before I can even reach for my lighter.
“I’m not losing you to cancer,” he snaps, tossing my cigarette over the edge of the building, where it disappears into the night wind.
“I’m not yours to lose,” I snap back, and, “You need to let that contract go.”
He steps into me, pushes me roughly back against the bridge ledge. He runs his mouth up the length of my neck and into my hair without kissing me, like he’s just breathing me in.
“Does that mean you accept the terms of my agreement?” he says in my ear.
I grab his collar in my hand to push him away without letting go of his shirt. “Deludedbastard,” I tell him. “I do not, and I never will.”
“Obstinateslut.” Luca pushes me back against the wall, slamming me to him by my hips. “I know you fucking miss me.” He roughly pulls up my dress, reaches between my legs with his bare hand, feeling me through the silk of my panties.
My heart beats too fast, my skin feels too hot. I’m more nervous now than I was during any one of our hunts, more nervous than when I escaped Luca’s flat with armfuls of evidence against him.
“Stop projecting, Luca,” I pant. “We both know it wasyouwho missedme.”
“Yes.” He licks up my neck and jaw like he wants to eat me, sinks his teeth into my cheek like he wants to take a chunk out of it. “Lynch, I fucking missed you.” He kisses my mouth, sucks on my bottom lip, his hand slipping into my panties, finding the wet, hungry core of me. “Missed your dirty mouth, your needy cunt.”
I tighten my fist in his collar, pushing on him, but he doesn’t yield so much as an inch. He presses his body into mine, he sucks at my pulse while he dips his fingers inside me with humiliating ease.
“I missed you,” he breathes huskily into my ear, “you liar, you shameless fucking coward—I missed you.”
Coming here tonight to help me get over him was a mistake. No recovering alcoholic ever felt better after a glass of wine. Andnow I’ve cracked the bottle open, all I want to do is getdrunkoff my absolute mind.
“Coward,” Luca hisses in my ear when I unbuckle his belt so I can palm the hard length of his cock.
“Traitor,” I hiss back when he hitches me into his arm to place his cock against my entrance.
