Stolen Lies (Truths and Lies Duet Book 2)

by Nikki Ash

  “I was worried about him,” she whines. “And then…I don’t remember how it happened. He was j-just on me. K-Kissing me. The towel was g-gone and…”

  Her body wracks with sobs. My fingers trace over her ribs and then my palms slide to her back, pulling her closer. She rests her forehead against mine. Salty tears fall on my face, mixing with my own.

  He broke her.

  He broke my fucking Talia.

  And in doing so, he broke me.

  “Tell me,” I plead. I need her to say the words. To hand me the proverbial sword. I need to destroy and wage war. I need blood. I need fucking vengeance.

  “He was so strong,” she breathes. “I was scared.”

  Her lips press to mine, attempting to distract me. I nip at her bottom lip in warning.

  No distractions. No more lies.

  I need the truth.

  “And then…and then he forced his way in.” She sucks in a sharp breath before breaking down. “It hurt s-so bad, K-Kostas. I hated it. I was scared you would hate me.”

  I grip her jaw and kiss her hard before pulling away. Our eyes lock. Intense. Vicious. Feral.

  “I could never hate you. I love you, goddammit,” I growl, enunciating every word. “I love you so much it’s killing me to hear this.”

  “I wanted to tell you,” she whimpers. “But he said you’d kill me.”

  My chest feels like she cracked it open, shoved her hands inside, and scooped out my fucking soul.

  “Talia…” My voice is low and deadly. I need her to understand me. “I would never fucking hurt you. Ever. Even if you slept with the motherfucker of your own free will. Fucking. Never. Don’t you see? I’m under your goddamn spell. You got inside me. It was so fucking dark and, Jesus, Talia, you were all light. I wanted that light so bad I could taste it.” I kiss her supple lips. “I’d never hurt you. Do you hear me? Never.”

  Her kiss is frantic—thankful and desperate—as she claws at my tie. I rip her pants roughly down her ass as she sits up to aid in my effort. We’re both clumsy and overly eager as we yank off our offending clothes that stand between us. I manage to get my jacket and tie off by the time she pulls away her pants and underwear. She works on my slacks as I pull hard on my shirt, and the buttons go flying. As soon as my cock is free in her hot, soft hand, I grab her hips, pulling her to me. My hand wraps around hers to hold my cock as she slides down over my length. With a hard thrust, I drive into her from beneath her. We both groan in unison.

  “Kostas,” she cries out. “I missed you.”

  Our lips crash together as her fingers claw at my bare skin on my chest. She pushes the fabric down over my shoulders so she can dig her nails there too. My fingertips bite into her hip as I guide her to fuck me rough and fast. Being inside her is the best fucking feeling in the world.

  Sliding my free hand between us, I find her clit to offer her some quick pleasure. I won’t last long. Not after a year of celibacy. I’m going to come like a teenage boy. Soon.

  Her pussy clenches around me when I rub her clit in firm, rough circles. I hiss in pleasure, spiking my hips up harder. She bites on my lip and rakes her nails down over my pectorals.

  “Fucking come, Talia,” I bark out. “I need you to come before I embarrass myself in front of my wife.”

  She smiles against my lips and rocks her hips in unison with the way I rub her. When sweet whines begin climbing out of her throat, I know she’s finding ecstasy with me. I pinch her clit in the way she used to love and am rewarded with a full-bodied shudder. My name screeches past her lips as she comes wildly. The frantic, feral way in which she does it is enough to send me over the edge. I lean forward and suck on her neck hard enough to mark her as my nuts seize up. Grinding up into her, I groan as I flood her with a year’s worth of pent-up release.

  Her arms circle around my neck as she hugs me to her. I bury my nose against her flesh, inhaling her sweaty, unique scent. I lick her salty skin and brand her with my teeth. I’m already hardening again like I’m fifteen years younger.

  Fuck.

  She does this to me.

  I stand with her in my arms and kick out of my slacks and shoes. She holds on, worshipping me with her kisses as I carry us to our bed so I can return the favor. We fall into the bed—where we fucking belong—and I kiss her deeply. She helps me rip my shirt off the rest of the way and then I’m driving into her slowly, my eyes glued to hers.

  I want to see her.

  I want to look at her for-fucking-ever.

  We spend hours tasting and teasing and fucking. I can’t keep my dick out of her. We’re sweaty and messy and fucking exhausted. And yet, we can’t part ways. It isn’t until we’ve showered and I’m about to bend her over the bed again that we’re dragged from our sex-fest haze.

  “Da-da-da-da-da.”

  The baby babbling in the other room warms me to my soul.

  “I’ll get her,” I grunt as I yank on some boxers. Talia grabs one of my T-shirts from the drawer to wear as I leave to get our baby.

  When I turn on the light, Zoe watches me with wide blue eyes. Fuck, she’s so damn perfect. I stalk over to her and pluck her from the crib. Hugging her to me, I inhale her hair.

  “I love you, agapiménos,” I whisper. “I will kill that motherfucker for stealing you and your mother from me.”

  I consider telling her all the horrible ways I will torture that monster, but then I figure that’s not a fatherly thing to do. It’s something my father would do. And I’m not him.

  Carrying her back to the room, I can’t help but smile when I see Talia cozied up in our bed. She’s so fucking beautiful with her hair wet and messy. Her lips raw from kissing. Purple bruises from my mouth littering her skin.

  I settle on the bed and adjust the little one so she’s nestled between us. On my side with my arm propped under my head, I admire the cute as fuck kid we made. Talia mimics my position and smiles proudly at our daughter.

  Aris—my goddamn brother—took from me.

  Took and took and took.

  Never again.

  As soon as I find him, and I will find him, I’m going to take from him.

  Skin. Hair. Teeth. Organs.

  I’m going to take from him until there’s nothing left to take.

  A slap to my face erases all murderous thoughts. The little angel with the blue eyes and brown hair swats at me again as though she’s trying to touch me. Leaning in, I let her abuse me. She’s vicious as she grabs a handful of scruff and tries to pull me to her mouth.

  “She’s hungry?” I ask because I know fuck all about babies.

  “She’s been teething, so it could be that. Or she’s curious. Usually she cries when she’s hungry.”

  “What do I do?” I grunt. “Fuck, she has a good grip.”

  Talia laughs and untangles the tiny fingers clawing at me. “For one, don’t offer your face as a chew toy.”

  Zoe’s face pinches and she lets out a pouty cry.

  “But she likes it,” I argue.

  “She also likes hair and blankets and shirts.”

  I grin down at my baby. “Don’t listen to Mommy. You can eat my face if it makes you happy.”

  Zoe coos and wriggles more, attempting to grab at me. I offer her my thumb and she sets to trying to pull it to her mouth.

  “I’ll make her a bottle,” Talia says with a laugh.

  While she’s gone, I stare at my perfect daughter. How is it this afternoon I was wallowing in despair and murdering my fucking father with my mother’s pillow and hours later I have my wife back and a daughter I never knew about? I feel like I’ll blink awake and this will be some cruel as fuck dream.

  The baby swats at me with her other hand.

  “You’re distracting like your mother,” I grumble but smile at her.

  Talia walks in, messy hair, perfect nipples poking through the thin shirt, and bare legs on display, carrying a fucking bottle.

  “Distracting,” I whisper to Zoe. “You’re both bad news for the
bad guy.”

  Talia grins as she hands me the bottle and climbs onto the bed, flashing me her naked pussy beneath her shirt. “Out there you’re the bad guy. In here, you’re Daddy.” She leans in and kisses me. “And spoiler alert, he’s the good guy.”

  Talia

  The sound of my daughter babbling happily from beside me wakes me from my deep slumber. I open my eyes and find Zoe lying on her back, her feet in the air, and her fists in her mouth. Kostas’s side of the bed is empty, but in his place are a dozen pillows entrapping Zoe. I laugh, imagining him building a barricade to keep her safe in the bed. He doesn’t know she’s fully crawling and could climb right over that wall if she wanted to.

  “You’re awake.” Kostas walks through the door, freshly showered and shaved, dressed in his power suit. God, he’s so sexy. Zoe spots him, and wanting off the bed, turns over on her belly and crawls toward him. Kostas’s eyes widen, and I laugh.

  “Yeah, she can crawl.” I nod toward the makeshift wall. “That wouldn’t stop her, but that was a good try.” I stretch my arms over my head. For the first time in over a year, I feel well rested. It’s been too long since I’ve felt safe enough to get a good night’s sleep. “I slept so well,” I tell Kostas. His lips curl into a boyish grin.

  “I did too.”

  “I missed this bed,” I joke, and he laughs good-naturedly.

  “Is that all you missed?”

  “No,” I admit, “I missed lying next to you… Too bad when I woke up you were gone.” I pout playfully.

  “I’ve had a busy morning,” he says, picking Zoe up. She reaches for his scruff, but it’s gone, so instead she pats the sides of his face.

  “Any news?” I sit up, suddenly remembering that this feeling of safety and comfort is only an illusion.

  “Not yet,” Kostas says. “But I’ve removed Aris’s name from all the accounts, so other than his personal account, which he can’t use without leaving a trail, he has zero access to any of the Demetriou funds.” He glances down at Zoe, who is chewing on her fist again.

  “She’s hungry.” I climb out of bed to grab a bottle for her. When I’m done making it, I take Zoe from Kostas and sit in the chair near the window to feed her. “What does your dad have to say about all of this?” I know he’s not a fan of me. He used me to get back at my dad for having an affair with his wife, but it backfired when Kostas and my marriage became real.

  “My dad is dead and he left me in charge of the organization. He no longer has a say.”

  My eyes fly to meet Kostas’s, but he’s not looking at me. He’s standing in the same place, glancing down at his phone nonchalantly, like he didn’t just tell me his father is dead.

  “What?” I ask in shock. “Your dad is dead?” When he doesn’t look up, I say, “Kostas, look at me.” His eyes lift from his phone. “Stop what you’re doing for two damn seconds. Since when is your father dead? Aris never mentioned that. He would’ve mentioned it. Did he know?”

  Kostas tucks his phone into his pocket, finally giving me his undivided attention. I can hear his phone vibrating from over here, but he ignores it. “You almost sound like you care about how Aris might feel…”

  “Don’t go there.” I shoot him a glare. “It’s just the last year, every time Aris would go on one of his rants, if it wasn’t about you, it was about your father. He was obsessed with bringing him down. When he finds out he’s dead, he’s going to lose it.” Instinctually, my eyes graze the room. If he can’t focus on destroying his father anymore, his entire attention will be on destroying his brother.

  “He’s not going to touch you,” Kostas growls. “I’m going to kill him, just like I killed my father. Only, unlike Father’s death, which was quick and painless, Aris’s is going to be drawn out. He’s going to feel every ounce of fucking pain we felt this past year from him taking you and our daughter.”

  Oh, shit! He killed his father? What the hell happened while I was gone? “You killed him?” It should worry me that I’m more shocked than upset that my husband killed his own father, but it doesn’t. I know Kostas, and if he killed his dad, there was a reason why. My husband might be cold and cruel when he needs to be, but he’s also smart and calculating. Everything he does is for a reason.

  “Turns out he and my brother have far more in common than anybody thought. He was cheating on my mom for years before she had her affair with your dad. And Aris knew the entire time.” He scrubs his hand along the side of his face in frustration. “He instilled loyalty into us from the time we were born, but he was anything but loyal to his own wife. I walked in on him yesterday getting fucked by some whore in the bed my mother slept in, so I made sure the last breath he ever took was in that same bed.”

  Yesterday… “That was why you were at Aris’s. To let him know your father is dead.”

  “He invited me to his house a million times over the last year, but I always declined. Didn’t care to hang out with him and his skank. But I felt I owed it to him to tell him in person. Showed up unannounced and that’s how I found you. I saw you looking out the window. Thought I lost my fucking mind.” Wow, the death of his father was what led Kostas to finding me. Had he not killed him, he may not have ever found us. No, I refuse to believe that. It was only a matter of time.

  “I’m glad you killed him,” I blurt out, and Kostas grins. “Because it meant finding us,” I explain.

  “I would’ve found you,” Kostas says, his tone filled with conviction. “But yes, I suppose his death was meant to be.”

  Zoe finishes her bottle and bats it away, sitting up and then crawling off the chair and onto the floor. When she gets to Kostas’s shiny expensive shoes, she scratches her tiny nails along them, curiously. Kostas picks her up and gives her a kiss on her cheek, and my heart warms. This is all I ever wanted, and now we’re so close to having it. All that’s in our way is Aris and Selene still on the run.

  “It’s Aris’s entire purpose to make you and your father pay,” I tell him, remembering all the times Aris told me how much he despises them.

  “He can try.” Kostas shrugs, as if my words barely deserve acknowledgment. “But now he has limited resources to do so. It won’t matter anyway because I have every man out there searching for him. We’ll find him soon.”

  “Like you found Niles?” I accuse. I shouldn’t poke the hornet’s nest, but I can’t help it. He’s so sure he’s going to find Aris, yet my father has been underground for even longer and he still hasn’t been found.

  Kostas glares. “I don’t give a fuck about finding Niles. He’s a waste of air. Your brother has taken over and is turning a nice profit. But finding Aris will happen, and when I do he will regret ever fucking with what’s mine.” He gives Zoe another kiss on the top of her head.

  “And until you do? What if it takes months or even years? Are Zoe and I going to be held captive here as well?” If my dad was able to hide out, I can’t even imagine what Aris is capable of.

  Kostas glances over at me. “You will never be held captive again. I have men surrounding the villa, and if you want to go somewhere, we go. I’ll make sure you’re safe.”

  “I’d like to take Zoe to the beach.” I stand and walk over to them. Her gaze flits over to me and she leans toward me, so I can take her. “Every day I was stuck in his house, I would watch the waves and wish I were back down here. We spent a lot of time at the pool, but it wasn’t the same. There were walls holding us in. I want Zoe to feel the sand between her toes. To feel the waves hit her body. I want her to know what it’s like to be free, even if she’s too young to understand it.”

  “Then to the beach we’ll go. But first, you need to call your mother and brother. They’ve been almost as worried about you as I was.” Kostas pulls his phone out of his pocket and hands it to me.

  Wow, things have changed. Kostas is telling me to call my family… “Have you spoken to them?” I ask, taking the phone from him.

  “Your mother and I speak almost every day,” he says. “I guess you can sa
y we formed a sort of truce. We both wanted to find you. And your brother is nothing like your father. He actually handles business the way it should be handled.”

  “Thank you.” I bring myself up on my tiptoes and give Kostas a kiss.

  “For what?”

  “For finding and saving us.” I give him another kiss. “For loving us.”

  After calling my mom, who cries when she finds out I’m safe, then cries even harder when she finds out she’s a grandma, then tells me she’s coming to visit, and Phoenix, who—without the tears—also promises to visit soon, Kostas, Zoe, and I head down to the beach. Since Zoe doesn’t have a suit, we grab one from the hotel store.

  I notice a few men following us, and Kostas notes they’re our guards. I still can’t help but glance around. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all. But I still keep walking toward the beach. After a year of being held prisoner, I think I just need a moment to feel free.

  Kostas has one of the cabana boys set up lounge chairs and umbrellas for us. I throw a blanket down, and Kostas sets Zoe down on it. We watch as she crawls to the end and reaches for the sand. She fists a handful and is bringing it up to her mouth when Kostas swoops in and saves her.

  “No, no, agapiménos,” he says softly. “That will taste bad.”

  Zoe’s face scrunches up in confusion, and Kostas laughs. It sounds so carefree, so unlike Kostas. Being a father really does bring out the best in him. All she has to do is look at him and he transforms from hard to soft. “So curious, just like your mother.” He taps her nose with his finger and she giggles.

  Grabbing his phone from the blanket where he tossed it along with his shirt, I open the camera and take a photo of the two of them. When Kostas leans in and kisses her cheek, I snap another one.

  I don’t realize I’m crying until Kostas looks over at me and frowns. “What’s the matter?”

  “Nothing.” I wipe the falling tears. “Everything is perfect.” I step toward the two people who are my entire world. “Every day when I was stuck in that house, I would imagine what it would be like when you found us. But my imagination didn’t do it justice. Getting to see you hold our daughter in person is better than anything I ever dreamed of.”