Betrayal (The Forever Series) (21 page)

Of course he does. That doesn’t surprise me one bit. He is very fond of his lists.

“No drama,” I say quickly, although that remains to be seen.

“What then?” he asks.

“I need you to…there is something off about…” Ah, just spit it out, woman. “Devon is up to something shady and I need to know what it is,” I say in a rush and he blinks at me before he turns away with a sigh of complaint.

He pulls back onto the road and says, “No chance.”

“Cade, please,” I beg him.

“If you want to know so badly, why don’t you just ask him?” Cade says.

“Because he won’t tell me!”
I say in exasperation. “He is keeping it from me for a reason and I want to know what it is.”

“How do you know he’s keeping something from you?” he asks.

“I know my charge,” I say. “I know him too well and he has been acting strangely since I came back from the Dark Fae Kingdom in March.”

“How so?” he inquires, unable to stop himself.

“He has been avoiding me. He won’t look me in the eye, he is moody and brooding and defensive, even evasive, and we haven’t been together properly in months, coma notwithstanding. It is almost like he doesn’t want to and that,” I slam my fist on the dashboard of my Aston Martin, “is the surest sign.”

“Christ,” Cade mutters. “This is drama, Liv. I want no part of your sexual goings-on. You want him to fuck you,
then just ask him to.”

I glare at him and his crass choice of words. “I don’t want him to fuck me,” I say haughtily. “I want him to be with me, properly.”

“Lady, you have not changed one bit,” he says, and, in spite of this conversation, I smile as we are definitely back to “our normal” now. “And speaking of,
two
husbands? How does that even work?” he asks and then adds, “No wait, don’t tell me. I really don’t want to know.”

“It doesn’t at the moment,” I say. “CK won’t make love to me yet and Cole needs me, and he fucked me once, but I have been so tired since I woke up…”

“Jesus!” he yells at me. “Stop talking! In what universe do you think I want to hear any of this?”

“Sorry,” I say sarcastically. “You asked.
But back to Devon. Will you find out what he is up to? Please?”

“No, I am not spying on your charge for you,” he says determinedly and grips the steering wheel even tighter.

“Please,” I say again as we have run out of time and are back home. We crunch up the gravel driveway and come to a stop. He turns to me and says, “I will do a bit of digging. If it leads somewhere that I want no part of, then I am out. Got it?” he says.

“Got it,” I say and smile gratefully at him.

“Don’t thank me yet,” he says and gets out of the car.

I follow him quickly, but before I can take two steps, Lincoln is out of the house and slamming Cade up against the car.

“Linc!” I shout at him. “Let him go.” I pull on his arm, but it is like trying to budge a mountain.

“No, Liv. You may have forgiven him for what he did. Whatever your reasons are for doing so are between you two, but he didn’t just try to kill you. He left me without my Alpha. He made me watch you lie unconscious and bleeding day after day, getting weaker and weaker, and wondering if you would ever wake up again. He doesn’t walk away from that with me. You are mine to avenge and he will pay,” he growls, slamming Cade into the car again and causing the alarm to go off. As he pulls back his fist to punch Cade in the face, my cries are lost in the shriek of the alarm. Cade drops, but Lincoln
holds him up and punches him again in the stomach. I am horrified, I cannot let this continue, but I am in no fit state to stop it. The alarm silences momentarily and I hear Cade grunt in pain.

“Lincoln!” I bark at him. “Do not touch him again!” My authority is unconvincing even to my own ears and he ignores me.

“Liv,” Cade rasps as he falls to his knees after another blow from Lincoln. “Let him do this.”

Lincoln stops his next punch in mid-air as Cade speaks. “He needs to punish me for what I did. I need my penance. They need to do this, and I need to let them. Just go inside.”

They? Them? I turn in shock as CK and Cole have also made an appearance with nothing but exacting revenge on their minds.

“Go inside, Aefre,” CK says.

“No!” I shout at him. “You cannot do this. You cannot hurt him. You cannot beat him to death on my doorstep, I won’t allow it.”

“Near death,” Cade slurs around his thick, bleeding lip.

I stumble back as CK pulls me roughly away. Lincoln hits Cade again and he drops to the ground.

“No,” I whisper. “Don’t.” My plea falls on deaf ears as CK shoves me inside the house
and slams the door in my face.

Chapter 13

London, England, September 2013 – Devon

He looks down into her perfect blue eyes, the color of sapphires, and he closes his. He can’t bear to look at her. He doesn’t know why he keeps doing this. He thrusts inside her one last time before he comes and then he rolls off her and sits up to pull his pants on.

“Oh no,” she says as she kneels behind him. “I am not finished with you yet.” She kisses his shoulder and he feels the pull of their weird bond. He wants to turn around and take her again, and then again, but he can’t.

“This is the last time,” he says to her. “I don’t want to see you again.”

She snakes her hand around his throat and says in his ear, “Aww, baby, you say that every time.”

“This time I mean it,” he says and tries to remove her hand. She is stronger than him and tightens her hold on him. “Other Liv,” he says through gritted teeth. “Get your hand off me.”

“Ah, ah, ah,” she says wickedly. “You know I hate it when you call me that,” she adds with a pout. “Say my name.”

“No,” he growls and she squeezes even tighter. He is all for a bit of BDSM, but right now he wants to get out of here and take a shower. Or two. He loathes himself for being with his sire’s Other version. She is a vile creature and he hates her. But she gives him everything he wants and he keeps coming back to her. He can’t resist her when she looks like Elizabeth and if he closes his eyes he can pretend it is her. The real her.

“Say it,” she says as she sidles around to sit on his lap, keeping her hold on him. “You know you want to. You know it would be so much better if you called me that.”

God help him, he wants to. But if he calls her “Elizabeth” he has well and truly Substituted his sire and she will kill him, unless he kills himself first. He never wanted this. He only wants her, but she won’t choose him. He has lost her, so he takes what he can get. He breathes in deeply, inhaling their delicious mingled scents and says, “Elizabeth, get your hand off me.”

“Better,” she says. “But try it with your eyes open.”

He does as she asks and the victory flashes in her eyes. He wants to stake her. He wants to watch the life drain out of those eyes before she turns to ash at his feet. She slams him back to the bed and straddles him. He wants to push her off, but his traitorous dick has other ideas. She slides onto him, her eyes fixed firmly on his. “Don’t,” she says as he starts to close his. “I want to see the pleasure in your eyes.”

She rides him slowly, her wet pussy enveloping him, taking all of him deep inside her. He grabs her hips and she puts her hands over his. He lets her do all the work. It is his only way of showing her that in spite of his rock hard cock, he is unwilling. He feels her clench around him and he can’t help but let go himself. She feels exactly like his sire does. He knows what he is doing is sick. Worse even than what Constantine did. At least he never found an alternate universe version to fuck, but in that moment he doesn’t care. This is a fantasy, a game. That is all it is. He flips her over onto her back and drives into her. His thoughts clear for the first time this afternoon, that he is fucking exactly who he is fucking. It is Other Liv and he slams into her, pounding her into the mattress with all the force he can. He wants this with her, needs it so he can walk away. Her orgasm rips through her as she arches her back, pushing her tits into his face, but he is intent on his task. He is going to finish this once and for all.

“It. Isn’t. Pleasure,” he pants. “This that you see is desperation.” He forces her hands under his, pinning her to the bed as he looks, for the first time, deep into her eyes as he comes. She looks shocked for a moment at his actions, but resumes her self-control quickly.

“It’s pleasure,” she says.

He shakes his head, “No. Now get out and don’t come back.” He gets off her and this time he stands and pulls his pants on.

She lounges on the bed, watching him get dressed. “I will be back and you will come to me,” she says eventually. “You can’t resist me.”

“No, I can’t resist
her
. You just happen to look exactly like her,” he remarks and the anger flares up in her eyes. He pushes it even further and adds, “You are nothing but a Substitute sire for me. There is nothing of substance about this, you are just a place to shove my cock into that looks exactly like the woman of my dreams.” He throws her dress at her. “Now get out.”

The anger is replaced with something he has never seen on her face before. Hurt. She masks it quickly, but he saw it and he is glad. He is glad that he hurt her, and he wants to do it again. “You are nothing but a pale imitation of my sire. There is nothing similar about you, she kisses better than you do, she fucks better than you do, and she…”

He doesn’t get out his parting shot as she has flown out of bed and slammed him against the far wall. It hurt like a bitch, but was worth every broken bone and the hefty security deposit he will have to pay the hotel for the damage caused. He shakes it off as he stands, cracking his neck as he heals. He smirks at her and says, “Hit a nerve?”

He feels the roll of Power go off her and he hopes that she beats him black and blue. He deserves it and more for betraying his precious Lizzie in this way. He is defiling her and their memories and their time together. He can’t even look at her now without thinking of what he is doing to her. He disgusts himself and he knows it shows plain as day on his face.

“There is nothing you can say that will convince me that she isn’t exactly like me,” Other Liv says as she pulls on her dress. “You will see, you will all see, her true colors one day. Maybe sooner than you think.”

She lets that sink in and even though he has no idea what she means, she looks far too confident of her words and it worries him. “I will come back and you will see me. If you don’t,” she pauses with a look that tells him everything he needs to know.

He scoffs at her, but knows she has him in a corner. “Blackmail? Classy,” he says and gets the satisfaction of seeing the rage on her face. “It’s interesting,” he says. “You pretend like you don’t care, that have no feelings and yet…”

“I don’t care,” she says, stepping into her shoes, but he knows differently now. She does care what he thinks of her and that she has feelings of deep jealousy with regard to Liv.

“And your husband?” he asks. “Does he care that you come here to be with me?”

“What makes you think he even knows?” she asks with a hand on her hip.

“You came to me as Elizabeth, you are going back as Elizabeth, looking like a cheap whore with my scent all over you,” he says. He is provoking her and it is starting to amuse him. “What do you tell him, when he goes down on you and he tastes me?”

He wants to laugh at her shocked face, because he would never have thought he could shock her. She is despicable and it now turns his stomach that his words are exactly the kind of things she would say. “You are such a tacky whore that you can’t even be bothered to hide it from him.”

“How dare you,” she hisses at him. “You know nothing about me or him.”

“I know that he must be a pathetic doormat with no self-respect to put up with you,” he replies and she slaps him hard across the face. It snaps his head back and he rubs his cheek and laughs at her.

It incenses her further and she threatens him, “Watch your mouth, boy. Don’t think I hold any affection for you because of who
you
look like. You are nothing more to me than a fun bit on the side. The agony you feel over betraying your sire with me is a bonus entertainment. Your conflict about being with me amuses me, but I could walk away from you and never look back. You on the other hand will lose everything that I offer to you that she doesn’t.”

Her words hit him like a ton of bricks. She is absolutely right. He means as little to her as she does to him. Only she has something he wants, something that he needs to take his next breath. Something his true sire won’t give him. He lowers his eyes in supplication and she preens. “That’s better,” she says. “I will overlook this little display and we will say no more on it. Be ready for me next time, I feel the need for you to be a bit more submissive with me.” She grabs him by his open shirt and kisses him. Everything he has just said to her, everything he feels about her, goes out of the window as she slips her tongue into his mouth. He lied before, she kisses exactly like Liv does and he loses himself in it.

Ninety minutes later, it’s not like he was counting, she leaves him slightly battered and bruised from her “punishment,” and he pulls out a pack of cigarettes and lights up. He needs a shower and a drink and then he needs to go home to his wife and hide all of this from her. She would never understand. He doesn’t even understand, so how can he make her? He finishes his smoke quickly and stubs it out. He rushes to the shower, needing to wash her scent off him. It coats his skin like oil and he has never felt this dirty before, and he has been with some pretty bad skanks in his time. He lathers up and rinses off and steps out, only to get back in and do it all again. He needs that drink now and after he gets dried and dressed he heads downstairs to the bar. It is late afternoon on a Sunday and it is pretty busy. He has no need to wait his turn though as the hot bartender goes to him immediately with her biggest smile and surreptitiously pulling her tight top a little lower to show off her big tits. He casts an admiring glance over her and she brightens up even more. Not his type with her red hair and green eyes, but she’ll do.