had a bottle in his hand, and he was half drunk. I could tell by the way he stumbled toward me. I never got a word out, as he grasped me by the elbow, and started pulling me up the stairs. His fingers were digging roughly into my skin, but I didn’t care in the moment.
Maddox pulled me into a room and slammed me against the wall, as he kicked the door closed. His body pinned me to the wall. “Mad–”
His lips slammed against mine, before I could breathe out his name.
The world shut off.
Time stopped ticking.
Everything just halted, and I was stuck in this moment, on a loop.
The colors faded away.
I stopped thinking… only feeling. This. Him. His lips.
His lips feasted on me, like he had been craving for my taste all along. It was all-consuming, and with a desperation so crazed, it lingered on my skin, and I could taste it on my lips, on my tongue. He took possession of my mouth, like he owned it. Like he owned me.
And goddamn it. He did. In this very moment, he owned me.
My skin hummed under his touch. His arm circled around my hips, and he pulled me up, my toes leaving the ground, as he kept me between the wall and his body. My hands landed on his shoulders, and his muscles clenched under my fingers. His body jolted, at my touch, and he bit me. Bit me hard enough that I tasted the metallic taste of my blood on my tongue.
This was no sweet reunion.
It was a battle cry. So much anger, so much hatred, so much… passion.
I bit him back, feeling his lip swell under my teeth. Maddox groaned, low and deep, and his body shuddered. Almost violently. I didn’t know where he started, and I ended. Our blood mixed on our tongues, but we didn’t stop kissing. Didn’t stop battling for dominance. Didn’t stop… touching each other.
This kiss.
This moment.
This… feeling. Torment. Love. Fury. Passion. Resentment. Longing. Pain. So much fucking pain.
The kiss slowed, and I wondered if Maddox could feel how much I didn’t want this moment to end.
“You taste like mine… and lies. You’re a fucking liar, Lila,” he rasped against my lips.
Furious, I tore away from him and slammed my fists into his chest. He was hurting, I told myself. He didn’t mean it; I whispered in my head.
But the anger was overwhelming and the final thin thread of my sanity snapped. I stabbed my finger into his chest, hard enough that he drunkenly stumbled back. “Me? ME? I’m a liar?” I screamed into his face. “You lived with me for months and lied to MY FACE, EVERY SINGLE DAY! You started our relationship with a lie. You. Kept. Secrets. From. Me.”
His eyes darkened, and his face turned red with rage, as he bellowed back, “I never lied to you!”
I paused, my heart hammered in my rib cage, so hard, I thought it’d burst out of my chest. “You still think you’re right? You still think whatever you did… was the right decision?”
“I never lied to you.”
I shook my head, laughing, but there was no humor in it. My laugh sounded as dead as my heart felt. “You did. You broke me, Maddox. You broke me… more than Christian and his dad ever did. You had the power to do so, and you used it.”
“I never lied to you,” he said again, in that same lifeless tone. Like he was trying so hard to convince himself.
“What was it then, if not a lie?”
Maddox lunged forward and pushed me back. His chest slammed against mine, and he pinned me against the wall again. “I was protecting you. It wasn’t a lie. Yes, I kept secrets… but I didn’t lie, Lila. I didn’t. All I ever wanted to do was protect you. Keep you safe. Keep you happy,” he croaked. “I vowed, damn it. I VOWED IT. I loved you and that was not a lie,” Maddox snarled in my face, his eyes deranged, and oh God, I never wanted to see that wounded expression on his face, ever again.
He… loved… me.
I remembered thinking about the moment we’d confess our love to each other.
I thought it would be romantic… I dreamed it would be magical. Little did I know… Our love turned out to be a war zone.
His hands slammed against the wall on either side of my head, so close, I flinched. “But you’re a liar, Lila. You promised me you wouldn’t leave me,