Page 41 of Threaded Lies

A loud noise sounds just outside, and it jolts me to the here and now. To the reality I must face and the future I’m forging to create.

My hands are on his chest and my anger resurfaces. At him for reminding me what I’m missing. At me for being weak. At this whole fucking situation I wouldn’t be in if it weren’t for my asshole brother and the empty promises of the man before me.

“Stop,” I whisper-yell. “Just stop.”

He takes a step back, looking over his shoulder to where the sound came from, but his shoulders heave, his Adam’s apple bobs, and he runs a hand through his hair. The chuckle he emits is one of disbelief and frustration.

“You have his ring on your finger, but you—this body, those lips”—he cups the apex of my thighs with one hand and then sucks on the two fingers he had between my thighs and groans, his eyes never leaving mine—“this pussy? They only want me. It’s only wet for me. So make me understand, Rowan, why you’re denying yourself what we both know to be true.”

Desire riots right beside fury and I let the tears I’ve been fighting all day come.

“Don’t you dare talk to me about truth.”

“Fitting you’d say that,” he mocks.

Tell him you know.

But I don’t.

Tell him you fucking know.

Can’t.

“I know ab—”

“Rowan? You in there?” the not-so-distant voice of Chad’s mother calls out.

I startle and look over my shoulder, almost as if the sound has shocked me back to reason.

I was going to tell him I knew.

I look back at Holden as I take a step back.

You broke my trust.

I ignore the confusion that flickers and fades through his eyes.

You took the one thing I gave freely and broke it.

It has nothing on the ache in my heart.

“I see you found the cuff links,” I say and take another step back. “Do me a favor? Forget I ever left them for you.”

And with a heavy heart and a head even more muddled, I walk out of the boathouse and back to the barge.

To a party where I have to pretend to be happy.

Around people when all I want is to be by myself.

Great.

Just fucking great.

THIRTEEN

Holden

Fuck.