The minute my hands shut my front door and lock it, my cell starts ringing. I know it’s Syler before I even go near it, before I even see the screen. He’s a genius after all when it comes to hunting people down. Toska wouldn’t be ringing me, not right now, she’d be too traumatized. But I know soon she’ll be coming after me. I may have been so caught up in all things Syler through it all, but I also wasn’t dumb. I studied her during our time together. She was a subject I didn’t even know I had. Studying her became something I did when Syler worked. She didn’t know I did it, though. I guess I got that from my father. But she was an easy read once you pushed close enough.

Maybe that was the problem, people weren’t looking closely enough at her. Not even her brother did. Yes, he was her protector, but he didn’t delve deeper than that.

My cell continues to vibrate in my pocket, so I pull it out to see his number on the screen and throw it on the kitchen counter. I may have gotten ridden of my other cell, the one they were using to track me, but I knew it wouldn’t be long until he found my new number. He’s a damn genius when it comes to hacking and all things computers.

Stepping into my bedroom, my window is open, and he’s standing in my room with his cell to his ear, watching me. While he pulls his away in slow motion, I go to reach for mine in my pocket, then swear when I remember I just took it out.

My heart starts hammering hard in my chest.

Will he kill me?

Or give me to her.

“That was foolish.” His voice steals my breath away. God, how I’ve missed it. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath just to bask in it a little longer. “Mouse.” Opening my eyes, he’s now standing in front of me, stealing everything I have left. He wants it all, and I don’t want to give it to him. I want to take it back, but I’m weak when it comes to him. Syler’s hand touches me, the way it always does, stealing pieces of me like they were his to begin with. They aren’t. Pulling my arm back, he looks up at me like I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I have.

“Syler.” Before I can say another word he’s on me, his body slamming mine into the wall behind me and his hands trapping either side of my head.

“You’ll come back to me, Mouse. We are meant to be. Two fucked up souls, fucking each other.”

My head shakes. No, I won’t go back. Why would I do that to myself? Look where I ended up. Half dead on a fucking river bank, having no idea how I even got there in the first place.

“You betrayed me! You picked her over me.”

He nods his head then dips it down on my neck, tracing his nose along the line of my collarbone. A shiver takes over me, my breathing becoming heavier.

“There is no choosing, Mouse. You’re mine.” His lips find mine and the simplest of touch consumes me. How I let him have this power over me baffles me. How I gave him that power in the first place confuses me even more.

He groans into my mouth, his hands pushing at my body, touching every surface as I stay against the wall. Turning my lips to the side, I try to break our kiss, but his kisses simply continue on my cheek and down my neck. Lifting my shirt with his hands, he exposes my breasts through the lace bra I’m wearing. His hot mouth works its way down until he reaches my nipples, sucking them through the lace then dropping down further.

Syler’s lips cover my body, while I stand there trying to not be consumed by him. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. My hands automatically go to his hair—it’s the first time I’ve willingly reached out to grab him. Usually, it only happens with his consent. He doesn’t stop me, though, or even pull my hands away. He lets me thread my hands through his hair as he slips my leather leggings from my body, exposing me to him.

“Tell me you love me, Mouse.”

I ignore him. That won’t happen again. Not this time. That was a one-time event.

“No.”

Syler stops. I can feel his smile even though I can’t see it. He kisses the top of my pussy, then drops lower to kiss me where I like it. Then he blows hot air and swipes his tongue along my folds. When he thinks he’s teased me enough, he leans back to look up at me. His perfect jaw, his perfect hair, his perfectly fucked up personality stares up at me like I’m his.

But I can tell lies, even I’ve become good at them.

“Your eyes are buried in lies, did you know that?”

Syler stands to step back from me, then starts removing his clothes fast. He traps me in place, and I don’t move. He doesn’t even give me time to look at him. I love to stare, and because I can’t touch him, I want to memorize every curve, every arch of his perfectly carved body.

“Lies....” he repeats to my mouth, so close I can taste myself.

“Just the way you tried to bury me in them.”

His lip quirks, that side smirk he has mastered fucks me over every time. But it also scares the fuck out of me how easily he can mold and shape me into anything he wants at any time.

“If I were to bury you in my lies, Mouse, I would be right there with you.” He lifts me up, so my legs automatically wrap around him, and I can feel his hardness at my entrance.

“I plan to take you with me, in the same way I plan to take her.” His eyes close before they reopen. Then he pushes himself inside of me, watching my every move and waiting for that moment, that perfect moment where everything disappears, and I get so lost in him that he steals everything I am. He lives for these moments—he’s told me so countless times.

I’m completely his, no one else’s.

He slides in and out of me.

Not caring anymore, I lift my hands and place them on his shoulders. Syler stills and I wait for him to start moving again and the moment he does my hands do as well, gliding up and down his back. I touch every part of him I can reach, every part that I’ve never been able to touch of my own free will. He grits his teeth then bites my lip, but I don’t stop. Not even when I taste my own blood from his fierce lips attacking mine.

“Jaya.” Syler says my name, my real name, and it does something to my heart every time he states it, but that doesn’t stop me either. My hands glide to the front, touching his stomach. I expect him to pull away and drop me, but he doesn’t. He absorbs all that I’m taking and doesn’t stop me.

My hands lift and run through his hair, my mouth nibbling on his ear just before I whisper to him as I come, “You love me, Syler Hunter, but the thing is I’m falling out of love with you.”

He stops, pulls back, dropping my feet back to the floor.

It was a lie.

But he doesn’t need to know that.

If I could stop what I feel for him, I would in a heartbeat. Syler’s not my idea of normal love. No. Ours is a disjointed love that can’t seem to find a way to fit together properly.

It’s fucked.

Everything about us is fucked.

There’s nothing normal, conventional, or ordinary about any of this.

Syler’s eyes are wild, his teeth bared. He didn’t expect for those words to be spoken. He obviously didn’t think I knew, but I know. I couldn’t have fallen for him without him giving me something in return, and not just his cock. No. I need more. And each touch I received when he thought I was sleeping, or the way he would hold me, it was quite plain for me to see. For me to feel. He built my love up, so it was fastened to him, and I did the same with each touch and glance I stole from him. I wasn’t going to be in this by myself—that was not happening. It might have taken me to this moment to figure it out and piece it all together, but Syler Hunter is madly in love with me just the same way I am with him.

But the question is...

Who does he love more?

And I don’t think it’s me.

That’s already been proven time and time again.

His cock is still hard, and his breathing is becoming deeper as he stares right into my soul. My body is tired, tired from it all. I hear my name called, and I look around over my shoulder at the closed door. I hear the front door slam as my father calls my name again.

“I’ll be out soon,” I yell at him.

Turning back around, I watch as Syler pulls on his jeans, then slides his shirt over his head before he glances back at me as he backs up toward the window.

“Don’t come back, Syler. Don’t ever come back.”

His lip lifts and that sexy smirk appears. “I can’t stay away from you any more than you can stay away from me.”

He’s right. No matter how many days I took away from being consumed by him, the drug of him is far too powerful. He’s like a sex addiction, the pull is way too strong, and it always seems to lead to negative consequences.

“How wrong you are. You see, you’re a possession of someone I hate more than the person who killed my mother. How do you think that changes my feelings for you, Syler?” My hand flings to my hip, and I watch him with wide eyes, waiting for him to say something. His eyes glance down then back at me, but his smirk is now gone from that beautiful face.

“I won’t choose.”

A stray tear leaves my eye and traverses down my cheek and falls to the floor. “You don’t have to, I already have for you.” Reaching for the towel hanging on the back of the chair next to where I’m standing, I drape it over my naked body.

He attempts to step closer to me. “You can’t.”

I nod my head. “I did! Isn’t it easier this way? It will make it simpler to hate each other, especially when I kill her.”

My father knocks on my door. My head swivels around to check it’s locked, but when I look back to Syler, he’s gone. The only thing that’s left is the key that I used to wear around my neck, the same one he took from me and never took off.

Until now.