Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 80689 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80689 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“You’re about to get a fist on you.”
He rolls his eyes, but he loosens his legs and drops down onto the sofa. “You used to be more fun,” he says as I push to my feet, but as soon as I think I’ve ended his game, he lurches off the sofa and tackles me to the floor. He’s triggered my rage, and now we’re wrestling. It’s like when we were kids, roughhousing, getting out all our anger on each other. And feeling his crotch against me assures me that it excites him just as much as always.
Straddling his waist, I finally manage to get hold of his wrists and pin them against the rug. He huffs, still straining to get the upper hand.
“You’re wasting your energy now,” I tell him. “Unless your fingers are going to type me to death, I don’t think you stand a chance against the muscles I’ve acquired over the years.”
He doesn’t give up easily. “Manual labor’s definitely served you well. Is this what Jonas likes about you so much?”
Now he’s using a different tack to win this fight. Fucker.
It makes me think about the disgusting lie he told Jonas. How he made me relive those painful memories. And how he clearly wants to torment me with them; otherwise, he never would have brought Jonas here.
“You and I both know that what you’re doing to him is sick. And it’s even more disgusting that you won’t let him see his sister. What will you do if something terrible happens to her?”
He grins. That shouldn’t make him fucking grin. “You care about him, don’t you?” he asks, as though he didn’t hear what I said. His gaze probes my expression.
“What?”
“I know you do. I see it in your fucking eyes when you look at him.”
I can tell by how he’s studying me that he doesn’t just want to know if I care about him. He wants to know if I feel something more. And while a part of me wants to shout, Yes! another doesn’t dare admit it, like if I voiced it, the universe would find some way to punish me for my feelings.
Even if the universe wouldn’t punish me, I would never share that with Simon because he definitely would.
“I’m not getting into this with you.”
He chuckles like some kind of demon, taunting me. Despite how we’ve grown apart, he can still see some things within me.
“You do. You think you can run off with him and have the life you always dreamed of with Kieran.”
That blow catches me by surprise. That name. We both so rarely use that fucking name, and he seizes the moment, bucking me off him before rolling onto me and taking my wrists, pinning me as I had him.
He chuckles, his cocky expression revealing how proud he is of himself for his success.
I’m not fighting back, stunned in place by the memories that seize my mind.
“Don’t ever forget that I know you, Ryan. Like no one else. Not even Jonas knows what darkness lies within you, and if he saw it, he’d hate you for it.” He says that through his teeth, spit tailing behind his words and landing on my cheek.
I told Jonas my secrets, and he doesn’t hate me.
He knows I didn’t do anything wrong, but there’s still doubt there—the kid who believed he was responsible for Kieran’s and Father’s deaths. And Simon’s words draw those doubts out of the shadows. Those ones that will always lurk in my mind because even when I told Father the truth, he must not have believed me.
“Enjoy your little fantasy while it lasts, Ryan.” A threat. But why? What are you planning, you shit?
Despite how much I hate him, part of me still feels I deserve whatever it is.
“Now,” he adds. “I didn’t mean to disturb your little read this afternoon, so I’ll leave you to it. I have some shows to catch up on anyway.”
He leans close, hovering near my cheek, and I’m waiting for another lick, something violating and demeaning, but he offers a peck. That’s Simon, always knowing what I’m anticipating and then giving me the opposite just to fuck with my head. And just as I think he’s about to lean back, he offers another before whispering, “Don’t forget what I said. Enjoy it while it lasts.”
That threat again. He knows I’m aware he’s planning something but that I haven’t figured out what just yet. And he must be loving rubbing that in.
Fucking bastard.
He finally gets off me and pushes to his feet, helping me back to mine before heading on his way, leaving my mind spinning even more than it was before he came to see me.
And I know damn well that was his plan.
Not gonna be getting any more reading in today.
28
JONAS
“She’s still sleeping a lot,” Aunt Amy says. “But she should be up in a few hours. I’ll get her to call you back when she has the strength.”