King of Liars
Ace’s Wild #4
Devon McCormack
ACE’S WILD SERIES
Ace's Wild is a multi-author series of books that take place in the same fictional town. Each story can be read in any order. The connecting element in the Ace's Wild series is an adult store owned by Ace and Wilder. The main characters from each book will make at least one visit to Ace's Wild, where they'll buy a toy to use in their story! The only characters who crossover to each book are Ace and Wilder. And with various heat and kink levels, there's sure to be something for everyone!
Thanks for giving the series a chance! We hope you enjoy the books!
Christina Lee, Riley Hart, SE Jakes, Alice Winters, Devon McCormack, Max Walker, Annabella Michaels, Neve Wilder, Jaclyn Quinn, Morningstar Ashley, Davidson King, NR Walker, Luna David, & Lane Hayes.
PREVIOUS ACE’S WILD BOOKS:
Science and Jockstraps (Ace’s Wild #1) by Christina Lee and Riley Hart
Nuts (Ace’s Wild #2) by SE Jakes
Rushing In (Ace’s Wild #3) by Alice Winters
KING OF LIARS
Copyright © 2019 by Devon McCormack
Editing: Keren Reed
Proofing: Proof Positive and Lyrical Lines
Cover Photography: FuriousFotog
Cover Design: Sleepy Fox Studio
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
KING OF LIARS BLURB
A Dark Romance
BOSS
I keep telling myself I won’t fall into King’s trap, but he’s determined to make me one of his knights—a group of tops at his beck and call.
He’s not my king, but he wants to be—something he’s made clear from day one. Sounds like some kind of twisted fairy tale, but it’s just my life as a transfer student at a new university. Figured I’d be spending my time finding my way around this new school, but I spend most of it navigating King’s mind games.
He calls me Boss.
That must mean I’m special, right? Or is it just another trick he’s using to lure me in?
I keep telling myself I shouldn’t…I can’t…I won’t…
But the more he pushes, the more I let my guard down. And soon, I find myself on one knee, bowing to my king...pulled into his messed-up Wonderland.
The only rules we play by are the ones King has created.
If it was all in good fun, that would be one thing. But what we share isn’t healthy—it’s toxic…dangerous. And for some reason, it’s just what I need right now.
These games bring forth something within me—a darkness I’ve tried to suppress. But now that darkness is pushing to the surface, and if I’m not careful, it might just tear me apart.
***
For the first 90 days of this title's publication, all sales and page reads will be donated to AID Atlanta.
KING OF LIARS is part of a multi-author series of books that take place in the same fictional town. Each story can be read in any order. The connecting element in the Ace's Wild series is an adult store owned by Ace and Wilder. The main characters from each book will make at least one visit to Ace's Wild, where they'll buy a toy to use in their story! The only characters who crossover to each book are Ace and Wilder. And with various heat levels, there's sure to be something for everyone!
WARNINGS AND TRIGGERS
King of Liars is not a BDSM story. It is about characters acting on toxic impulses, which is the opposite of characters engaging in a healthy BDSM lifestyle. Even though the characters participate in activities that appropriate elements of BDSM, at no point is it presented as such.
The story features sharing, meaning there is no equality—or desire for equality—in the sexual dynamics between the characters. It’s just college dudes screwing around with one guy, then another and another. They get jealous, petty, and vindictive. All manner of awful things occur between them, and some readers will not enjoy this, especially if they are looking for an MMMMM story where all the characters are in a healthy relationship with one another.
Finally, this book contains elements that could act as triggers for some readers, including:
Flashbacks and mentions of sexual/physical abuse against minors
Excessive manipulation and acts of humiliation
Characters reclaiming homophobic slurs
Self-harm
Depictions of unhealthy, addictive relationships
Contents
Part I
1. Boss
2. Boss
3. Boss
4. Boss
Part II
5. Nick
6. Boss
7. Two
8. Boss
9. Two
10. Boss
11. Two
12. Boss
Part III
13. Nick
14. Boss
15. Two
16. Boss
17. Two
18. Boss
19. King
20. Two
Epilogue
If You Enjoyed This Book
Also by Devon McCormack
About the Author
THANK YOU FROM ACE’S WILD
Part I
1
Boss
I stood on the front porch of the two-story home, not far from campus.
I didn’t know much about this Sy kid, but he must’ve come from money. That was the one thing all the rumors seemed to agree on. The rest, well…who the fuck knew?
Meth, orgies, Satanism—people would say just about anything about this guy and his friends.
I struggled to convince myself to take that next step.
Just fucking do it. What’s the big deal?
I took a breath, counted to three, and knocked. Didn’t seem like I’d knocked loudly enough, so I tried again.
The door opened, and a guy—well over six feet tall, built like a linebacker—stood in the entryway in just a pair of black trunks. He seemed a little older, probably a junior like me, if not a senior. His dirty-blond hair was in a short crewcut, spiked at the front. His sharp, square jawline tensed as he cringed, looking me over the way he had a few nights earlier when I’d last seen him. I hadn’t caught his name during the gossip fests I’d overheard or in my chats with Sy, but I knew he was one of the guys who hung in Sy’s circle—the alleged sex cult.
He couldn’t have appeared less impressed with me if he’d tried, as though he was wondering why Sy had even invited me over.
“Think you have what it takes to satisfy the King?” he asked.
I’d learned quickly that’s what Sy went by around his crew—well, according to my peers, his knights. And damned if that kind of weird-ass shit didn’t make me that much more intrigued about learning whatever they were into.
“You don’t seem to think I can impress him, but I’m guessing he invited me over because you guys need help in that department.” I couldn’t fucking help myself. This guy seemed like a real ass, and the only reason I had even bothered coming over was because my curiosity had gotten the best of me.
Truly, Sy had a way of luring me in. First at a house party a few blocks from campus, then chatting me up at the coffee shop where I worked. Before I knew it, he had my number and was texting me.
Don’t believe the rumors.
You need to come see for yourself.
It’s fun. I promise.
We hadn’t texted much, but the texts we had exchanged had steadily drawn me in, and as Sy assured me, If it’s weird, you just head the fuck out, never see me again.
; It was going to be weird—I didn’t have any doubt in my mind about that.
I waited for Ass to slam the door in my face, but he shook his head and stepped aside.
“Come on in, and I’ll take you to Wonderland.”
I stepped across the threshold, and Ass closed the door behind me.
Every red flag, every alarm in my mind, told me I needed to bolt right then, so I opted for conversation to ease the tension. “You guys call this Wonderland?”
“The fuck? No. What’s wrong with you?” Ass turned around, and I followed him through a short hallway, my eyes fixed on his perfectly sculpted ass in those boxers.
Damn, the guy had a nice ass… The kind of ass that would get plenty of attention in a sex club…or cult…or whatever the hell it was that Sy and his crew were up to. Just made Ass an even more fitting nickname for him.
“So Wonderland is crazy-talk, but king and knights is totally normal?” I asked as we slipped around a corner, into the kitchen area.
“Isn’t it Gandhi who said: ‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win’?” He went through the kitchen, around another corner, and then opened a door, motioning for me to follow.
“Gandhi didn’t say that,” I remarked, calling out the misattribution. “But since you mentioned winning, am I to assume we’re playing a game?”
He chuckled. “Oh, it’s a game, all right. You think you can win it?”
“I figure the only reason I’m here is because I’m a worthy opponent.”
“We’ll see.” He started down the stairs leading to the basement.
“Close the door behind you, Boss.”
Boss.
That was the name Sy had called me, kept fucking calling me since we met. Had to admit it was the kind of nickname that could keep me talking to a guy who I thought was trying to pull me into some bizarre-as-fuck orgy.
As we descended the stairwell, illuminated by an incandescent bulb hanging from a fixture against the wall, I braced myself for whatever was waiting for me at the bottom. What sort of fucked-up Wonderland were Sy and his crew into? Images played through my mind, the sort that might have come from a movie. Could have been a bunch of guys stoned out of their minds or in the middle of an orgy… Both, perhaps.
I had a sneaking suspicion this was all a trap and I’d end up in the middle of some fraternity haze, something to torment the new transfer student.
When we reached the door at the bottom of the stairs, Ass opened it and waved for me to head inside. I stopped for a moment, taking in the unfinished basement—concrete walls and floors, exposed wooden beams, a light dangling from a cord in the middle of the room—then entered Wonderland. I saw Sy standing on the other side, two guys already in front of him, in a semicircle, each down on one knee. They were bare-ass naked, no one seeming to give any shits or think it was weird or scary to be walking into what appeared to be very much the sex cult the rumor mill claimed their crew to be.
I chuckled, not so much because it was funny, but because it was a room full of naked guys on their knees for a guy who had his cock and balls hanging out. I was like an American Eagle model stumbling into an Abercrombie & Fitch billboard.
Sy was a hot guy, thick with muscle. Apparently, these guys lived for bench presses and protein shakes. A few brown-and-blue spots scattered across Sy’s beautiful flesh suggested injuries, like he’d gotten into a fight or played a sport.
While Sy’s physique wasn’t as impressive as Ass’s, it was clear he spent a lot more time sculpting himself at the gym than I did. Not that I didn’t feel confident with what I was working with.
I heard the door shut behind me and turned sharply as Ass, no longer in his boxers, headed past me. He joined the other guys, choosing his place in the semicircle and bending to one knee.
Ass hadn’t seemed the type to humiliate himself by fucking cowering before some kid he’d have no problem kicking the crap out of. Hell, none of these guys were small. Still, Sy had some sort of power over them.
And it wasn’t just these guys either—it was me as well. I wasn’t dumb enough to believe I’d have come all the way to his house if I hadn’t been enchanted by this charismatic kid.
The faintest trace of a smile played across Sy’s lips. He made his way toward me, stepping between his knights, his calm walk seemingly as calculated as everything that came out of that beautiful mouth.
He was a little shorter than me, probably around five feet seven. He and I were Davids to the Goliath-Ass. Like his height, Sy’s features were more similar to my own—rounder than Ass’s—and he had nearly black curly locks. Having the most average, plainest, straightest brown hair, I couldn’t help but envy a guy who appeared to naturally have what for me would have required some dye and effort to get anything close to that look. Golden eyes, like honey, fixed on mine, as though he was probing for something in my mind, searching for psychic answers to questions I wasn’t privy to.
“Welcome to my playground, Boss. You’ll go by whatever nickname I choose for you. It could change, as I find your weaknesses, the ones I care to exploit.”
I winced. “Wow. That’s fairly ambitious. I agreed to a meeting, not to become one of your…”
I hesitated to call any of these big-ass guys anything derogatory, considering they could simply push to their feet and come for me, but Sy did so for me: “My drones?”
I inspected the guys, who didn’t look at us, waiting for one of them to say something, to object. Hell, maybe they enjoyed this guy giving them hell, but surely some part of them would snap out of fucking pride.
“I think you’re more interested in becoming my sexual servant than you’d care to admit.” He crept a little closer, until I could feel his body heat pushing against me. Or was that just how hot I got when he was inches from me?
I didn’t deny there was chemistry. I’d felt it as soon as our gazes met at that house party a few weeks earlier, when he’d caught me in his sights. I’d already heard about him, seen him and his gang around, but he hadn’t seemed to even notice my existence. Then one night, his eyes were right on me, like some predator who’d just discovered his prey. He wasn’t quick to pounce, either. He’d taken his time, but before I knew it, he was slipping alongside me by the bar, chatting me up and encouraging me to drink shots with him. Inching closer and closer, touching my chest and side in just the right way, enough to know there was a spark. He’d courted me at a couple of more parties as we discussed everything from my time running track and playing football in high school to my floundering around in community college before following my talent in mathematics to one of the universities with the best math department in the country.
The more we chatted, the more I wanted to try him out. However, unlike the rest of these guys, I had some goddamn self-respect.
Sy’s gaze locked on mine, in some sort of staring contest I wasn’t interested in playing with him, so I averted my eyes briefly before looking at him again, wincing. “What the hell makes you think I’d be down for this?”
“I have a talent for knowing what guys like you need.”
“What is it you think I need?”
His lopsided grin expanded. “That’s my business to know, not yours. You’ll find out more about yourself as you spend time with me. All those things you hate about yourself…all those things that make you so fucking human, it’s disgusting.” The way he cringed at the end of his sentence made me feel like he was moments away from spitting in my face.
“I guess you aren’t a public relations major,” I joked, which made the other guys chuckle. His gaze shifted to them. He was definitely irritated they’d responded so well to my tease.
“Ah, my little fucking clown. Maybe I’ll call you Bozo. You like that?”
He assessed my expression, as if waiting to see if it bothered me. I could tell, just like when he’d first approached me, that he was always searching for something, always carefully calculating my every move. What was he looking for? What was
he trying to see?
And why did I feel like I wanted him to see it?
“No, Bozo doesn’t intimidate you. If I’d given that nickname to Kerry or Ryan, they would have been annoyed. That’s why they’re Stupid One and Stupid Two.”
The guy who’d greeted me at the door growled, and Sy’s face tensed up. He turned and snapped, “Did you say something to me, Two?”
Two ducked his head lower. “No, I’m sorry, Master.”
Sy hocked up a wad of spit, shooting and effectively hitting Two. Once he took a breath, collecting himself, he waved to the last member of his crew—a guy with a buzz cut and a thick five o’clock shadow, close to Two’s size. “And then there’s Hole, because it’s the only use I have for Malcolm.”
Sy moved closer to me, until he was right in my face, tilting his head either way like some kind of robot trying to understand what made me human. “Now I just have to figure you out. But I have time. I don’t rush things like this, Boss.”
Why did he keep using Boss for me? His nicknames for the other guys seemed degrading, not like they were designed to make them feel better about themselves.
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