“This isn’t working,” Adam said with a disgruntled sigh, watching me through watery eyes, unwilling to look down at the table where Alden had returned the torn pieces of the pictures.
His unwillingness to look at them made my stomach flip. He’d always had a thing for Larissa, and if they were affecting me this much, even turned against me, he was having a hard time looking at the fake photos.
“What did you expect? She’s fucking seventeen! The last thing she remembers is my dick and the catacombs, which I’m sure won’t impress her husband,” Adrian sneered.
“What did you just fucking say?” Ryder asked, and I blinked, watching him.
“She’s seventeen years old, and that is when I deflowered her. I fucked her. I took her down to the catacombs, and I popped that succulent cherry, asshole.” Adrian looked like he was taking great pleasure in repeating the details of our first sexual experience as he smiled smugly at Ryder.
I repeatedly blinked, watching the anger that formed on Ryder’s features as he closed the distance between himself and Adrian in one fluid motion. He reached for Adrian, and the room exploded into action as everyone pulled them apart.
I turned, staring at the wooden chair I sat in while everyone struggled to protect Adrian from Ryder as they fought. I snapped the leg off it and swallowed down the agony of my decision.
Turning back to the tangled bodies as they rolled over the floor, assaulting each other, I closed my eyes, fighting for strength before sending a silent prayer to Hecate. I started forward toward the boy I loved, with the intent of ending his suffering.
“That’s my wife. If you fucking kiss her again, I’ll pull out your fucking fangs.”
“She was mine first, and then you took her from me, fucker. I can’t change that I had her first, nor would I,” Adrian snapped, turning red eyes toward me as I held up the stake and rushed at him.
Ryder’s hand shot out, slapping the stake from mine before he smiled, throwing his head back and laughing. His gaze burned with naked heat as it settled on me, a roguishly handsome smile tugging against his lips as he exhaled the tension.
“I don’t have to kill you. Synthia is going to do it for me.”
“Syn, do not stake me! You like me like this, remember? I’m your boyfriend,” Adrian said, holding his arms out as a deep growl rose from Ryder’s lungs.
All around us, people were laughing, and my heart was breaking. My eyes filled with angry tears as my stomach churned, clenching while my pulse echoed in my ears until I felt it in the vein above my eye. Everything and everyone was wrong here.
It was as if I’d stepped into the worst episode of the Twilight Zone, and I couldn’t escape. Tears rolled down my cheek, which Ryder seemed to note first. His hand lifted, and his thumb wiped the tears away.
His hand against my cheek sent a shock wave of heat coursing through me to pool between my thighs. His scent slammed against me, heady and intoxicating as my body clenched, heating in a way that terrified me. I stepped away from his touch. His eyes widened and then narrowed while remaining locked with my own.
“If you really want to, I’ll hold Adrian down so you can kill him, Pet.”
“I want to go home,” I whispered through trembling lips. “I just want to leave here with my friends. Let us go, and I’ll do anything you want me to do.”
“How about this, you give me a few nights to show you who I am. After that, if you still want to go home, I’ll let you leave.”
“What game are you playing?” I asked, watching him carefully while I replayed his words, ensuring he wasn’t trying to manipulate or trick me.
“I will take you and your friends to the portal. I’ll let you walk away from me if you still wish to do so after I’ve reminded you of who you are and what I am to you. Give me a few nights. My rules, though.”
“Are you going to rape me if I agree to your terms?”
“I have never raped you or forced you to fuck me. I love you, woman.”
“I thought the fae couldn’t tell lies?” I asked, tilting my head while I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth, which made his eyes lower to my mouth.
Ryder’s smile tightened. His intense gaze watched me as I became lost within their depths, unable to look away. He didn’t reply, and I mentally shook myself from the daze his perfection had locked me in.
I studied my team that was depending on me to get them out of here. Well, what was left of it, that was. They all nodded at me encouragingly, and I glared at them.
Bastards.
Of course, they’d agree to use me as bait to set them free. They had no idea of the sex-induced stupidity this prick was creating within me. My vagina was all amped up and calling him to play peekaboo with his cock.
Releasing my breath, I reluctantly held up two fingers. “Two days.”
“I’m not negotiating days, Synthia. Not with how fucking stubborn you are.”
“How many days do I have to stay here with you then?”
“One week. At the end of the week, if you don’t love me again, or remember who I am, you can walk away. Hell, when you do remember who I am, you may still want to leave.”
“Why? If I truly loved you, why would I want to leave you, Ryder?” I placed my hand on my hip, tilted my head, and studied him, cautiously.
His pupils constricted as his name rolled off my tongue. His words were thick, filled with emotion. “Because I fucked up big time with you.” He lifted his hand to touch my face, only to pull away when I flinched. “I left my greatest love in a pit full of monsters, and she came out of it as someone who doesn’t even remember who I am. I’m not so sure I deserve her love anymore.”
“Why the hell would you do that to someone you’re supposed to love? You’re a fucking dick.”
“Yeah, but that dick is one of the things that made you mine.” He wiggled his eyebrows, no doubt trying to lighten my mood.
“Are we talking metaphors here?”
“No, you love my dick.” The look of smug satisfaction was enough to make me puke.
“Oh, this is awkward, but I wouldn’t touch your dick with Adrian’s dick, and I actually liked his dick.”
Ryder bent down and held out the stake. “Try it again. I promise not to interfere and save Adrian this time.”
“Really?” I took the stake, and he held his hands up and stepped back.