Heart of a Liar

by Ella Miles

  Luca grabs my chin and turns my head so that he can kiss my lips. His mouth crashes with mine. His tongue tangles with mine. And I realize that I’m screwed. Because just this one kiss is better than anything I’ve experienced in the last two years.

  It’s just sex. Just because we are good at it doesn’t mean anything. It just means that Luca has had too much practice. That’s why he’s so good. That’s all this is. I’m not making a mistake.

  Luca turns my whole body so that I’m facing him. He pushes my hands high over my head as his mouth claims mine. His body presses up against me, just like I remember.

  I’m making a mistake.

  “You sure you still want this, baby? I can stop at anytime. Can you?” he says, challenging me, letting me know that he is still in control.

  But I’m done letting him have any control. I pull one hand free. I reach down and grab his hard cock a little too hard. “I’m just fine, baby.”

  “Where’s your bed?” Luca growls.

  I grab his cock harder as I grin. “You don’t get to see my bedroom.”

  I push his head down until he is kneeling on the hard floor of my patio. His hands slide down the sides of my body as he moves down, and he slips his hand into the side of my scrub pants. He slips my pants and panties off in one motion. He looks at me one last time, giving me a chance to say no. His eyes show me how much he missed this.

  When I push his head into my pussy, he obliges me. He attacks me with his lips, his tongue. I lose it. Fuck, he remembers exactly how I like it. And he does more with his tongue than I remember him being capable of doing. Or any other man being capable of doing.

  “Fuck, Luca. Slow down, or I’m going to…”

  I can’t get any more words out because he is taking me there so fast. I’m going to come all over his face before I’ve even had a chance to enjoy him.

  But then his tongue stops. His lips barely hover over my pussy.

  “What? Don’t stop. That’s not what I meant,” I groan.

  He smiles against my pussy. “I’ll kiss you again. In your bedroom.”

  God, I hate him. I absolutely hate him. How does he always find a way to take back the control?

  “Fine,” I growl, no longer caring if I have control right now.

  I just want to come. I just want to forget about my shitty day and shitty ex-boyfriend. I just want to use him like he used me.

  Who cares if he is in control of my body? I’m in control of his heart.

  “Good girl,” he says, lifting my body up because I can barely move after my almost orgasm.

  He softly kisses my lips, like he knows that even a kiss is enough to send me over the edge and he isn’t ready for that yet. He doesn’t want me to come until he says I can come.

  He glances back over his shoulder as we walk into my house. “Will the dogs be okay?”

  I grin. “They will be fine. This is going to be quick anyway.”

  He frowns. “Quick first. And then long and slow. And then quick and then slow until I’ve had my fill. It’s been too long. I need you in every way possible.”

  I shake my head. “I’m only promising one right now. Just one.”

  His frown deepens as he realizes what I’m saying.

  “My bedroom is down the hallway, on the left.”

  He shuts the door behind him, but he doesn’t start walking down the hallway. Instead, he walks into my kitchen and sets me on the counter.

  “What are you doing? I said, my bedroom is down the hallway. Are you getting supplies for our one time?”

  His eyes darken as he kneels down again and takes my pussy back in his mouth. I scream from his touch. I moan. I cry out. I lose my mind. And it is the last thing I remember before I pass out from the feeling.

  10

  Luca

  I didn’t fuck Ivy. I couldn’t. I couldn’t just have her once and then not have her again and again. But I realize now, as I lie in her bed and watch her sleep, just how much of a mistake that was. Anytime I turn down the woman I love is going to be a mistake. I should have her any chance I get.

  I watch her sleep, wondering if she will let me have her when she wakes up. I gave her countless orgasms last night, just all with my tongue instead of my dick. I thought it was the right thing to do. I thought it would be easier than having her and not getting to have her again. But it just made it worse.

  I thought it would give me the control back again. I thought that making her come would just make her want me more. Enough to give in to a whole night of sex instead of just one time. She didn’t give in though. Instead, she passed out. I gave her the control—or so she thought. I gave her control for one night, but this is exactly why I never give her control. She makes bad decisions when she has the control. I know what she really wanted, and neither of us got it.

  Ivy’s alarm clock goes off, and she hits it automatically. She starts getting out of bed like I’m sure she does every morning. Ivy does everything with purpose. And, unlike most people, she actually loves her job and wants to get up early in the morning to go do it.

  “Good morning,” I say as I watch a naked Ivy walk toward her bathroom.

  She jumps. “What the hell?” She grabs at her chest when she sees it’s just me. “Jesus, Luca. You scared the crap out of me.”

  I grin. “Sorry.”

  She stares at me, not bothering to cover her naked body. I think she thinks she can use her body to control me. And she might be right. I’ve just had more practice at controlling others than she has. She’s not good at it.

  “What are you still doing here? And where did you put that puppy of yours? I’m sure she’s destroyed half of my house by now,” she says like she cares. She has this house because of her dogs, not because she loves nice things. She doesn’t care if Sophie chewed anything up or not.

  “I put her in the kennel I found in the spare bedroom.”

  She nods.

  “And I wanted to make sure you were okay before I left.”

  She rolls her eyes. “You didn’t give me that good of an orgasm, you know. I’m fine.”

  I lower the covers and watch as her eyes go straight to my naked cock that has been hard most of the night while I’ve thought about her. It was the hardest thing in the world, not to touch her. I walk over to her as she looks at me like she wants to devour me.

  “That’s not what I was talking about.”

  “Oh,” is all she says, still staring at my dick.

  “You could have had it last night if you had promised more than one time. You can still have it now,” I say.

  She quickly brings her eyes up and looks me in the eyes while crossing her arms across her chest. “What were you talking about?” she asks, ignoring what I said.

  “I wanted to make sure that you were not still feeling like the world was going to end because you were being sued and that I was serious when I said that I would represent you if you wanted.”

  She shakes her head. “I’m fine. I’ve been through worse.”

  She means with me, I think.

  “So, you will let me help you? You’ll let me fix this?”

  “This isn’t something you can just fix. You have to actually be a lawyer. You have to know what you are doing. You have to be able to put your feelings aside and do what is right, not what is best for me.”

  “I’ll always do what is best for you.”

  She looks at me with sad eyes. “No. You do what is best for you.”

  I sigh. “So, can I make you breakfast? Take you to work? Do anything for you today?”

  “No. I’m not working today.”

  She starts walks into her bathroom, and I watch in disappointment as she puts on a robe before reemerging.

  “Great. Then, we can hang out, and I can help you with your case.”

  She shakes her head. “I already have other plans.”

  “With Skye? You can tell her you’re busy.”

  “No. Not with Skye.”

  “Then, with whom?”
I ask.

  She shrugs. “Some guy from Tinder.”

  “What?”

  She smiles and shrugs again. “I have a date.”

  She starts walking out of the bedroom and is greeted by her dogs and cats licking her hands and wagging their tails—well, the dogs do anyway—all ready to be fed and let outside.

  I’m stuck frozen, imagining her on a date with someone else. It’s not fucking happening. She can’t date someone else after I had my face buried in her pussy last night. She’s not the type of girl that is okay with that. She is a one-man kind of girl.

  I quickly move out of the fog and run after her. She is standing at the back patio door and opens it to let the dogs out. I notice that Sophie is in her arms. She pets her head one last time and is rewarded with a lick before she places the pup down to go run after the others. She leaves the door open and then walks over to the coffeemaker.

  “You aren’t serious, right? You’re just mad at me and trying to get back at me.”

  “You want any coffee?” she asks, ignoring me.

  I walk over to Ivy. I grab her shoulders and force her to stop moving around the kitchen. I need her to look at me. I need her to answer me.

  “You aren’t going out on a date tonight with a complete stranger. Right?”

  She huffs, and then her big brown eyes look up at me with a tiny twinkle because she knows exactly what she is doing to me. “Yes, I think that is exactly what I’m doing.”

  My heart sinks. “You can’t…”

  She raises an eyebrow. “I can’t? Are you serious right now? Who made you king over me?”

  “Don’t…please.”

  “It doesn’t matter if I go on a date tonight or not. You and I are never going on a date. Last night…” She pauses and looks out at the dogs that are starting to run back inside. She walks over to where she keeps the dog food in the kitchen and begins to scoop some out into the bowls that line the wall of her dining room.

  I slowly walk over and wait until she has finished scooping all the food into the bowls, and the dogs begin to eat the food.

  I softly touch her arm. “Last night what?”

  She takes a deep breath. “Last night was a mistake. For both of us. Let’s just forget about it and move on with our lives. I’m tired of playing games with you. I think I finally got the closure I needed. That we both needed. I don’t think you should represent me. I think we should just move on.”

  I narrow my eyes at her. “Can you really do that? Can you really just move on and forget last night even happened? Can you forget that I lied to you? Can you forget that I’m a prince?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you forget about our kisses?”

  I lean down and softly, tenderly kiss her on the lips. And I know I’m stealing all the air from her body.

  “Can you forget about how I touch you?”

  I tuck a strand of her curly hair behind her ear.

  “Can you forget about how I lick your pussy? Can you forget about how my dick feels inside you? Can you forget about how I love you?”

  “Yes,” she says in barely a whisper.

  I nod. “If that’s what you really want.”

  I walk over to Sophie, who has finished the bowl of food that Ivy laid down for her. I scoop up the puppy. “Have a good time on your date. I hope he’s the one you’ve been looking for.”

  I look at Ivy one last time just in case this is the last time I ever see her, but I don’t really believe that it could be the last time I ever see her. I can’t believe that, not yet. I can’t let her go this easily.

  A plan starts forming in my head. She says she is tired of playing games, but that is exactly what we are doing. Playing games with each other for control until one of us breaks. She might have won this round, but the next round is mine.

  11

  Ivy

  I haven’t been able to think since Luca left this morning. All I’ve wanted to do all morning is pick up the phone and tell him to come back and fuck me. When I said I made a mistake last night, that mistake wasn’t that I turned him down. The mistake was not saying that I would fuck him more than once so that he would fuck me. That was what I needed to get over. I needed to have that experience one last time, so I could remember how he was the same as every other man or could see that he was the best I’d ever have. But at least I would have known.

  Sex isn’t a reason to stay with someone. It isn’t a reason to forgive someone. It’s just sex.

  And I want it desperately.

  I’ve tried masturbating, but even a vibrator is not enough to rid my brain of Luca.

  I’ve tried taking a long bath.

  I’ve tried going for a run.

  I’ve tried watching TV.

  Nothing does anything to make me forget about Luca. But there is one last thing I haven’t tried that could still give me hope to get over him. Tonight’s date.

  Skye found him for me on Tinder. I’m sure he would be up for a one-night stand. That’s about all I can handle anyway. With everything going on in my life, I don’t think I can handle balancing a guy and the lawsuit.

  I do have to thank Luca for one thing. He’s distracted me from the pain and fear. Instead, I’m just a horny mess.

  I have an hour until my date is supposed to pick me, so I do the one thing I’ve been avoiding since Luca left. I run to my office and pull up Google. My fingers pause over the keys while I contemplate if I’m really going to do this or not.

  After a few seconds, my fingers start typing Luca Mores. Dozens of articles pull up. I start with his Wikipedia page. He’s a prince. It says it on the first line of the page.

  Jesus, I think as I lean forward in the chair.

  I want to read more, but my eyes can’t get past that first line. Prince. It’s such a crazy concept. But it will make a good story to tell the grandkids someday. That I once dated a prince. He was a lying, cheating scumbag. But he was still a prince.

  I force my eyes to read past that line, and I scan until I find the next piece of information that I had been looking for. He graduated from Stanford with a law degree.

  I sink back in my chair. He hasn’t been lying to me this time. He’s been telling me the truth. That means that he love—nope, I’m not going there.

  I shake my head. This has to be some elaborate lie that I almost fell for. Again. He’s not a prince. Just a liar.

  I hear the dogs barking, playing down the hallway from my office, and I lean back further in my chair to see what they are doing. A second later, I feel the chair give out, and I’m falling to the floor.

  “Shit,” I curse as I hit the floor.

  The dogs come running in and start licking my face.

  I laugh. “Thank God for you guys.”

  But, when I look down at my shirt and pants that are now covered in dog slobber and hair, I remember the downside to having dogs. I sigh as I get up. I guess I’d better change before Van, my date, comes.

  The doorbell rings, and I run to go open it with the dogs following closely behind me. I throw the door open, trying my best not to look frazzled, but I am.

  My eyes widen when I see the man on the other side of the door.

  “Hi, I’m Van,” the man says, holding out a single rose to me while he leans against my doorframe.

  “I’m Ivy,” I say, slowing taking the flower from him before thinking I’m going to kill Skye later.

  This man looks almost identical to Luca in every way.

  “Do you want to come in for a drink first?”

  I watch as Van looks down at my dogs in disgust. It’s clear that he doesn’t want to get dog hair on his designer jeans.

  “Thanks, but I don’t want us to miss our reservation.”

  I nod. “Let me just get my purse, and I’ll be ready to go.”

  I don’t bother calling the dogs away from Van as I walk back to my bedroom to get my purse. He might look like Luca—both have the too-long blond hair, fair skin, and blue eyes—but other than that, Van
seems to be the opposite of Luca. Luca would have gladly come in for a drink even if that meant missing our reservation. He would have done anything I wanted. He just wanted to make me happy.

  No, that’s not true. He made me happy until he started lying his ass off, which was almost immediately.

  I grab my purse. I’m going to give Van a chance. Although I don’t know how I’m going to fuck him and not think of Luca.

  “I’m ready,” I say to Van, who is standing in my entryway, trying to keep my dogs from licking him to death.

  “Good. Let’s go.” He immediately walks out my front door and toward his car without waiting for me.

  I quickly lock up and then run out to where he is already climbing into his Porsche.

  I sigh. Luca would have opened my door for me.

  I walk over to the passenger side and climb in. Van starts pulling out of my driveway.

  “So, where are we going for dinner?”

  “I have reservations at Café DeLuce.”

  “Oh, wow. That’s a nice restaurant. I should have worn something nicer.”

  Van glances down at me. “Do you have anything nicer? Never mind. Don’t worry about it. We don’t have time. They’ll let us in. They always do.”

  I frown. I think I look fine. Better than fine. I’m in a dress and heels, for goodness’ sake. I know I’m not wearing diamonds and a ballgown, but I still look nice. And I like this dress’ hidden pockets for random things. Luca would have complimented me about how nice I looked and not given a fuck about a dress code at a restaurant.

  I’ve got to stop thinking about Luca like this. It’s not giving Van a fair chance.

  I glance over at Van, trying to think of questions to ask him, when he reaches for the radio and cranks the music up. He puts the top down on his car.

  I sigh. So much for making conversation.

  We get to the restaurant, and the valet opens my door for me. I climb out and wait for Van to come over and at least walk next to me or hold my hand or place a hand on the small of my back. He does none of those things. Instead, he just walks straight into the restaurant. I can’t walk as fast as him in my heels, so by the time I make it in, he is already arguing with the hostess about which table he wants.