Page 127 of The Never List
“I want to punish you for lying. I want to cut the truth out of you. I want to fuck you so hard and so long, you won’t be able tothinkabout anyone outside the Legends,” he says. “I want to take turns with them, lighting you up in ways you’ve never even dared to imagine.”
His words send bolts of pleasure down my body, but then his hands lock up, stopping me from moving against him again.
“Don’t you get it?” he asks, a desperate edge to his tone. “Don’t you see why I can’t give in to you?”
“Because I’m a liar?” I shake my head becauseno, I really don’t fucking get it. Not when his words contradict everything he’s shown up until now.
He reaches up with one hand, tangling it in my long hair and arching my head back so sharply it almost stings. “You think I chose you because I wanted to?” He shakes his head, that laugh sliding like warm whiskey over my bare skin. “Ihadto choose you. Ineededto choose you. There was no stopping it. And the second the words came out of my mouth, I knew I’d damned us.”
I whimper slightly, unable to lock down the hurt that causes.
His grip tightens in my hair. “Not because of what you’re hiding from me, butterfly,” he chides, and my eyes flare. “But because what I’lldofor you if you’re really mine.”
I blink back the emotions storming me so fast and so intensely, I can hardly breathe around them.
“I’m the Nightmare, Rylee,” he says. “The son of the vilest bastard who’s ever lived. I’m not good like the other Legends.”
“I don’t believe that,” I argue.
Jax groans, shaking his head. “You’re not afraid,” he says, almost like a warning.
I draw as close to him as I can in his grasp.“Never,”I say.
His eyes are searing as they meet mine. “You should be.”
“I’m not.”
He studies me, his eyes going cold. “Then you’re foolish,” he snaps, jerking his head toward the door. “Get out.”
“What?” The question is a surprised whisper.
He stands up, plopping me on my feet and putting two strides’ worth of distance between us. “You heard me,” he says. “Fly away, butterfly.”
“You’re not serious,” I say, my heart racing. I felt it… I’d been so close… He’d been so close—
“Don’t make me ask again.”
I gape at the iciness to his words, but I quickly shut my mouth as I glare at him. “How ironic,” I say, shaking my head. “That the Nightmare turns out to be a fucking coward.”
I spin around, tears welling in my eyes as I hurry out ofthe room.
Away from him.
Away from his inability to see what’s right in front of him.
Away from any hope of ever getting him to believe me.
38
Rylee
Tears flow freely down my cheeks, my ability to hold them back crumbling every time I hear Jax’s voice inside my head demanding Iget out.
Get away from him.
My heart begs me to go back, to fight for him, but I don’t want him to see me cry.
I’m not giving up, but I can only be told I’m not wanted so many times before I start to believe it.
