Cheater (Curious Liaisons, #1)(81)

“I want you. Only you.”

“Okay.” My thoughts jumbled together. “And the thought of being with me and only me—no more Mondays or Fridays—that doesn’t terrify you?”

He. Said. Nothing.

“I think I have my answer”—I nodded—“I’ll just . . . Can you tell my parents I got sick? I’ll catch a ride with Austin so that you don’t have to drive me back.”

“The hell!” Lucas gripped my shoulders, his fingers dug into my skin. “Would you rather I lie? Of course I’m terrified. I’ve never done this before! You can’t judge our future by my past!”

“But that’s the thing about pasts . . . As long as they stay in the past, you can move on. But you, Lucas Thorn, have not moved on. You’re stuck in between your past and our future—and that’s not fair. To either of us.”

“I love you!” His grip tightened. “Avery, I love you.”

My heart cracked. Could he tell how hard this was for me? To be in his arms? To walk away when all I wanted to do was crash my mouth against his and beg him to say he loved me over and over again?

But when you love something . . .

You let it go . . .

“Prove it.” I nodded.

He released me and turned on his heel, jerky movements that weren’t normal for a man who did everything with a predatory smoothness that was most of the time absolutely terrifying.

“This is bullshit.” He ran his hands through his hair. “All of it. I can’t believe you’d listen to Brooke.” He paced back and forth. “Avery, I don’t know how to prove it! If I knew how, I would do it. Just tell me—I can’t lose you.” His eyes filled with tears.

“That’s my point!” I choked back a sob. “You’re hurting me without even knowing it. Your moral compass is so skewed that you don’t even realize how you’re hurting me!”

“HOW the hell am I the one hurting YOU?”

Speaking of hurting, my head was starting to throb. After a moment, I held out my hand. “Give me your phone.”

His eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“Thorn . . .”

With a curse, he pulled out his cell and tossed it in the air. I caught it with both hands and pressed the home button to light up the screen.

Fifteen new messages.

All from different girls.

“This”—I pointed at the screen—“this hurts.”

“Avery, I haven’t even responded.”

“I want you to choose me not because I’m pressuring you to, because I know you’ll resent me for that. I want you to throw this life away because you want to. And right now you don’t. You think you do, but it’s a comfort, having someone on the side, just in case. I can’t wait at home, knowing that one day you’re going to smell like another woman’s perfume. I want all of you, not a day, not five days—I want forever.”

I chucked his phone at his head and walked out of the room.

And right into World War III in the living room to witness a screaming Austin holding Brooke in an impressive headlock. Grandpa Lewis was clapping his hands like they were doing some sort of country jig, and my mom was trying to pry Brooke and Austin apart while Thatch stood nearby, looking guilty and extremely sad, which made no sense at all.

I stomped over to him, shoved his ripped chest, and shouted, “What the hell did you do?”

“Nothing, I—”

Austin released Brooke. “NOTHING?”

He had the good sense to backpedal. “Austin, we aren’t exclusive—we talked about this. We—”

In tears, she slapped him so hard across the cheek that my own face stung.

Thatch cursed and grabbed his cheek. “What the hell!” he roared. “Austin, we discussed this!”

“ONE WEEK AGO!” she yelled. “And I said I wanted more and you said okay!”

“How the hell does that translate into exclusive?” He dropped his hand. “Because when you said you wanted more, I took more time off so I could be with you—and you seemed happy.” He reached for her. “Aren’t you happy?”

“Yes.” She wiped her tears. “I’m so thrilled. Just jumping for joy that I discovered that witch with her tongue down your throat!”

Brooke flushed bright red.

How the hell had she moved that fast with Thatch? Did she always set up men? And where was Kayla?

I seriously wanted to strangle my sister with my bare hands, and probably would have had Lucas not appeared just then in the living room.

I couldn’t face him.

Not now.

And probably not tomorrow.

I breezed past him and whispered, “I’m quitting the internship.”





Chapter Forty-Three


LUCAS

Things calmed down once Avery and Austin left, but it took a few bottles of wine for everyone to forget that I was mysteriously without Avery, the girl I had walked in with.

The one I was supposedly marrying.

I made excuses for her.

I lied to everyone about this mysterious illness that also made it look like she’d been crying.

I did what I did best: I Lucas Thorned everyone. And I hated that everyone believed me, that I was so damn good at lying and making people want my lies to be true that I wasn’t even nervous about it. I could literally justify any lie.