Addicted After All(41)
Lily sits straighter. “I’ll do it.”
“Lily.” I shake my head. “No.” The last thing that she needs is more anxiety.
She says, “Better me than you.”
“No,” I cringe, realizing exactly how Ryke just felt. I clench my teeth harder than before, more pissed now. I don’t want the girls at Hale Co. I don’t want this life for them.
They were free.
Weren’t they?
“Both of you are self-sabotaging,” I snap at Daisy and Lily.
“No,” they reply adamantly.
I’m lying on the tracks of a train—letting it speed over me and just hoping that I’m not swept up in the momentum. It’s now that I recognize what will happen.
We’re all agreeing to my father’s proposition for each other. No one will back down anymore.
I was indebted to my dad the moment he chose to let me live and enter this world. I thought I proved myself to him, but this future has been here all along, a path that I knew I’d meet at some point. The suit and tie, the briefcase with the Hale Co. logo.
It’s mine to take.
No one else should.
But everyone will fight for it. I can already see the wheels spinning in my brother’s mind. His constricted muscles and the shake of his head that says back down, let me have it.
Ryke would endure hell for eternity if it meant that I could go to heaven.
Once upon a time, I think I would’ve let him. Not anymore.
He deserves his paradise. So I’ll fight against my brother. I’ll fight against Lily and Daisy for this position. The winner is the loser.
And this cage has my name on it.
{ 13 }
LOREN HALE
“This is it?” I ask Ryke as he carries down Daisy’s duffel bag. Rose has a five-piece suitcase stacked by the door along with the rest of our luggage for the yacht trip.
“That’s it.” He tosses the duffel on the pile. The girls are eating breakfast while we haul everything to the car. “How’s Lily?” Ryke asks me in the foyer.
Connor abruptly finishes texting and straightens up off the wall.
“She’s fine,” I say vaguely. It’s been a couple days since my dad unleashed the news about Hale Co., and afterwards, I held Lily in my arms all night and tried to distract her with a Harry Potter marathon—something that wouldn’t arouse her.
I think I said no only two times before she rolled away from me and tried to fight her compulsions. I have my fair share of ups and downs, but it’ll always be harder watching Lily hit a low than going through my own. Watching someone you love in pain—and not being able to fix it—it’s agony that I don’t wish on anyone.
“Have you had sex?” Connor asks while Ryke slips on his shoes, about to go for a short run with me. He bends down to tie the laces.
“Have you?” I retort. Connor knows the rules now. I’m not sharing details about my sex life without something in return.
Connor cups a mug of coffee. “She woke up to me thrusting inside of her. So I’d say yes.”
My brows rise at that image. Jesus.
Still crouched, Ryke gapes at Connor. “You didn’t really f*ck her while she was asleep.”
“She woke up a couple seconds after I pushed into her, which is the point.” He sips his coffee and watches Ryke’s expression darken. “Heel, boy,” Connor banters.
I smile wide, even as Ryke stands an inch taller than me. Now he’s closer to Connor’s height than before. “Fucking hilarious.”
“I thought so,” Connor grins and sets his mug on an end table by the door. “I just know what my wife loves. If Daisy was into it, you’d do it too.” I’ve never had sex with Lily like that—and honestly, I don’t want to put the idea in her head. It’s better if she doesn’t expect it.
We’ve taken small steps throughout the years, like public sex. Her therapist actually approved of it—though she scolded us for lying in the first place and not admitting that we’d been doing it long before.
We were in the wrong for the lies. I think we both recognized that.
Now we’re free of them again.
Ryke stretches his arm over his shoulder and lowers his voice. “Daisy would freak out if I f*cked her while she was half asleep,” he tells us. “She’d think I was someone who broke into the house…” He can’t finish the rest, but his face twists. She’d think he was raping her.