Ethan
Ethan more or less dragged her from the booth. In the end, he took Lily’s wrist, and pulled her rather unceremoniously back to the waiting car. As he directed her into the passenger seat, he saw her gaze darting around the vehicle, and he tensed. Ethan knew what was on Lily’s mind even without needing to read her thoughts. After all, the last time Ethan had let his guard down, Lily had run.
He wasn’t going to let that happen again.
Not now, and not ever.
Lily was going nowhere.
“Sit down.”
Ethan practically growled the words at her, and her eyes flitted north to meet his.
“I am,” she panted, shifting her weight into the car.
“Yes, you are,” he reiterated the point as he scowled down at her. “And whatever you’re thinking, Lily, you are not going to run.”
She drew in a deep breath, and he waited until she seemed to settle before he paced around to the driver’s side. Even then, Ethan half expected to hear the car door open and see Lily dashing across the Scottish glens, but amazingly, she actually did as she was told. As he climbed behind the wheel, he glanced across at his wife.
“I can’t believe you did it.” She didn’t even look in his direction, but he could hear the hurt loaded in Lily’s voice. “Why did you do it, sir?”
He switched on the engine. “Do you really want to know?”
Lily sniffed. “Yes.”
“Do I need to haul you over my lap to remind you how to address me, little one?”
Lily’s glare shot in his direction, and in those green eyes he saw the stack of accusations loaded against him. Wisely, she chose not to vocalize any of them.
“I can’t believe you still want me to call you, sir,” she huffed.
Ethan took a moment before he struck. When he moved, he shifted with his usual speed and agility, reaching for her hair as her gaze widened in fear.
“Believe it, Lily,” he sneered. “Because I am your husband now and this is the status quo.”
“Stop it, Ethan,” she gasped. “You’re hurting me.”
His cock roused at the way she made that sound. “But you like it when I make it hurt, baby,” he whispered, leaning his face toward her shocked expression.
“Not like this, sir,” she panted. “Please—not like this.”
Ethan lessened the tension at her hair, but only slightly. “Are you thinking of running?” he asked. “And don’t even think about lying to me, Lily. You know I can find out the truth for myself.”
She stared at him for a moment, clearly trying to decide how best to answer. In the end, she sighed—a sound that told him the truth was coming next.
“I want to go to the police,” she told him, a flicker of guilt in her gaze as the admission left her lips.
“I see.”
Lily panted, “I mean, I know I didn’t go about any of the others, but this is Jody, Ethan. I mean, sir.”
She looked at him imploringly. “My friend. You killed my friend.”
A well of emotion seemed to rise in her as she spoke, as though the meaning of the words had truly become clear for the first time, and tears began to well in her eyes. Ethan watched her for a moment, feeling torn. He wanted to comfort the woman he loved, yet instinctively, he wanted to silence the individual who had the potential to bring him down. It was troubling that it happened to be the same person—Lily—the woman he was crazy about.
“I’m sorry I caused you pain about Jody,” he told her, and in that moment, Ethan meant it.
Jody hadn’t been about hurting Lily. Her upset was an unintended consequence.
“But?” she demanded. “Are you sorry you killed her?”
He squeezed his eyes closed for a moment, considering her query. “I didn’t plan it,” he admitted, “and that’s the truth, but honestly, I felt nothing for her.”
Lily’s mouth fell open at his explanation. “Nothing?” she repeated. “But, how can that be? She was with me that night you saved us from those guys. You saved her then, but you killed her another time? How does that work?”
Ethan sighed. A moral outlook like Lily’s was never going to be able to understand the way a mind like his worked, but he supposed he owed her some sort of rationalization of the events.
“I didn’t save her,” he reminded her. “I saved you that night, Lily. Jody was an irrelevance.”
A low sob caught in Lily’s throat, and Ethan’s chest tightened at the sound. Perhaps, he should have found a more diplomatic way of putting that last part…
“An irrelevance?” Tears made tracks down Lily’s face as she stared at Ethan in disbelief. “How can you say that?”
“Because it’s the truth,” he assured her. “What do you think your so-called best friend wanted me for the night she took me back to her parents’ house?”
Lily drew in a sudden breath. His question had clearly caught her off guard. “What do you mean?”
Ethan fisted her hair tighter, drawing her body toward him. “You know exactly what I mean.”
Lily’s gaze darted around the interior of the car, refusing to meet his eyes. “Are you saying she wanted sex?”
“She was fucking begging for it,” he promised her. “And as I watched her provocative little strip-tease, all I could think about was you, Lily. That I shouldn’t be there. That I didn’t want to fuck Jody. That I loved you.”
“Then why were you there?” she gasped.
“Because I was an idiot,” he confessed. “You and I had a falling out—that morning when you didn’t want to talk—and I was pissed off.”
Ethan paused, watching her responses carefully. “That’s not an excuse, either,” he assured Lily. “It’s the truth. I was angry and I needed a distraction, and I’m afraid Jody became that distraction.”
“So, you strangled her?” she sobbed.
He nodded. “I certainly didn’t want to sleep with her. I know you can’t deal with it, but Jody was only good for one thing.”
Lily squeezed her eyes closed. “Oh God.”
He waited, allowing more tears to fall. She needed to grieve for her friend, and he supposed he could understand that much at least. “I can’t let you go to the police, Lily.”
Huge green eyes met his gaze again. “But her parents, sir?” she gasped. “They need justice.”
Ethan snorted. “No. There is no justice apart from the kind I find in your arms, little one.”
Lily shook her head as best she could. “I can’t. We can’t. Not after this.”
His lips curled at her answer. Hadn’t she said almost the identical thing after his confession last time? “I’m sure you told me that once before,” he murmured. “But you changed your mind—after a while—and once I played your horny little body like the beautiful instrument it is.”
Lily’s face tensed at his assessment. Evidently, it wasn’t welcome. “This is different,” she insisted. “This is Jody.”
Chapter Forty-One
Lily
“Nothing is different.”
The grin which lit Ethan’s face was scary as he shifted his body even closer in her direction. “Or more accurately, everything is different now—you’re my wife, Lily—and there’s no way you’re going to deny me now.”
Lily gulped. “What do you mean?” she panted. “That you’ll take what you want with force?”
The sound of Ethan’s laughter filled the vehicle. “I won’t need to do that,” he said with a smirk, finally releasing her hair as he shifted back to his seat. “I know just how to make you wet and desperate for me. Or, have you forgotten?”
Lily gulped. She hadn’t forgotten, and that was the problem. “Not this time, sir,” she muttered, hissing the final word through her teeth. “This time we have a problem.”
Ethan eased the car away before he glanced back to her. “We don’t have a problem, Lily,” he assured her in a gravelly tone that made the muscles of her very core spasm reflexively. “You have a problem.”
His tone was even and he seemed calm, but those words hit home, making Lily’s heart race as she watched the countryside slip past outside.
“Wh-what do you mean?” she stammered.
His gaze returned to the road ahead. “I mean, two things are certain.”
Lily’s heart pounded at the way he put that—as though Ethan’s word was law from this point on. In many ways, she supposed it was, and in many ways, it had been for a while.
“We’re married now, little one, and that means I am your husband and we stay together.”
Ethan reached for her right hand, and Lily’s eyes followed his huge palm as it stroked her skin gently.
“And the second thing?” She was almost too afraid to ask, but somehow, Lily had to know.
The hand at her flesh squeezed, encasing her fingers in his hot touch.
“You are not going to the police about Jody,” he assured her in an ominous tone. “Not now, and not ever.”
Lily bit her lip, her emotions conflicting whichever way she thought about them. On the one hand she loved Ethan. Despite everything, she loved him, and she sensed that may never change whatever revelations he threw at her. The man was a part of her in an almost instinctive way. It wasn’t logical and it wasn’t sensible, but it was true, and Lily couldn’t change it.
Worse though, she wasn’t even sure she wanted to.
But then, on the other hand, there was Jody. She’d been her friend ever since they’d both started working at the salon, and despite Jody’s selfish and flighty behavior where men were concerned, she had been a good friend to her too. She’d taken her to all the best parties, introduced Lily to countless new people, and she’d even provided Lily with an alibi when her father had come questioning her whereabouts. And anyway, whatever she might have been, she didn’t deserve this—she didn’t deserve to have her whole future obliterated by a man who saw her as nothing but a means to an end—a way to make himself feel better after he’d hit a rocky patch with Lily. What would happen the next time she and Ethan fell out? Would a whole new crop of women have to die to compensate?
“I think not.”
Ethan’s voice sent her thoughts spiraling, and Lily turned to find his focus back on her again.
“Sir?” She swallowed at she made the query.
“I don’t think I’ll need to go on a new killing spree every time you piss me off, little one.”
Lily’s heart was thundering inside her chest now. Everything about Ethan’s demeanor suggested she was in trouble, and yet her heart still wouldn’t let her believe it. She couldn’t conceive that the man she adored would actually hurt her. Not really… But as she stared into those cold blue eyes, Lily had to question her judgment on that reality. Perhaps he was capable? The man was a self-confessed killer…
“Want to know why?” He sounded almost excited as he shifted into third gear and eyed the twisting road ahead of them.
Lily gulped at the question. Somehow, she wasn’t sure that she did, but she sensed the answer was coming regardless.
“Cat got your tongue, Lily?”
She shook her head. “No, sir. I just don’t understand what you mean.”
The grin that filled his face made the tension in her belly knot. “Oh, you will, beautiful,” he promised her in a sardonic tone. “And if you don’t want me to explain right now then that’s fine. You’ll know soon enough.”
Lily was scared now—no doubt about it. She’d always been attracted to the danger Ethan represented. She knew that, but even after everything—even after he’d admitted he was the murderer—she’d never believed he would harm her. The insidious expression on his face shattered that illusion for her though, like a rock smashing through glass, and the knot of anxiety in her stomach twisted until it leaked cold dread throughout her limbs.
“Ethan, you’re scaring me.”
How many times had she told him that?
He turned toward her, his lips curling in a foreboding response. “Not yet, Lily,” he replied. “I’m not scaring you yet, but I promise you, I will.”
Ethan
Ethan could feel the tension rising in Lily’s body, and it was powerful, like the tides that threw giant waves against the rocks at the coast. Of course, he’d sensed anxiety in his wife before, but this was different. Lily had been right about Jody in one regard. When Lily had refused to talk about her feelings, Ethan had chosen to take his angst out on the unsuspecting blonde, but that couldn’t happen again.
Ethan wasn’t going to let it happen.
Lily was the light his darkness had been waiting for, and nothing was going to wreck that—not even Lily herself. Ethan couldn’t go back to his killing spree. Those days were done. If he wanted to get these frustrated emotions out of his system, he’d have to find a new direction for their focus. And if he couldn’t choose some pretty little thing from his visions anymore, then he’d have to choose the pretty little thing that belonged to him—Lily.
“Oh, God.”
She sounded like she was practically hyperventilating beside him. “Oh, God, I’m sorry, Ethan. I didn’t mean it. I won’t go to the police.”
He glanced in her direction, and sure enough, there were flashes of panic in the beautiful forests of her eyes. “No, you won’t.”
Like the sick fuck he was, Ethan’s cock hardened at the quiver in Lily’s voice. Of course, she made him hard often enough, but this time that delicious tremble of fear reminded him of all those other women, and the countless times they’d begged him for mercy. Up until this point, Ethan had been able to separate their plaintive pleas with Lily. His arousal with her had been distinct, borne of the intimacy and trust between them, but now that distinction seemed to blur. It wasn’t just that she was gorgeous, or that she loved him. It was that she was fearful, and she was prepared to beg him to stop. To plead with him if necessary. That made him uncomfortably hard, his cock tenting his pants as the realization washed over him.
“What can I do to make it better?” she panted. “I’ll do anything. Sir, please?”
His balls tightened at her words, and he pulled in a deep breath. The air in the car had never been sweeter.
“Be quiet,” he told her in a soft tone. “Right now, that’s what I want you to do.”
“But—”
“Lily.”
Just one word and one glower in her direction was enough to silence her, and he watched as she crushed her teeth against her lip, imagining how much it must hurt.
She sighed, but still her limbs trembled. “Okay,” she ceded. “Okay. Whatever you want.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Lily
He was quiet the whole of the journey, the silence oppressive as they pulled into the car park of the small bed and breakfast which had become their temporary home. Lily fiddled with the lace decorating her dress, nerves pumping around her body like a tsunami. It wasn’t the first time she’d been in trouble with Ethan, but this time she knew things were wrong. He was angry—more than that really, and the shutters seemed to have come down in his eyes at her admission at wanting to go to the police. Several times on the short journey, Lily had tried to sense what was on his mind, harnessing her new-found abilities as best as she could, but it was to no avail. She wasn’t sure how he had managed it, but his mind was an impenetrable fortress.
Ethan cut the engine, and turned to Lily—the first time he’d glanced her way since the order for silence.
“Are you going to behave?” His voice was as steely as the look in his gaze. “Because I’m happy to restrain you, Lily—should you need it?”
He paused, his eyes widening a fraction as though his gaze was daring Lily to push him. Lily merely blinked at him for a moment, trying to process this change in Ethan. She couldn’t see any logical way he could actually bind her. How on earth was he going to explain that to the rather conservative looking owner of the place? Yet she sensed now was not a good time to argue about the point.
“Well deduced,” he muttered dryly. “
You obviously know me too well.”
Lily swallowed. “You don’t need to restrain me,” she told him as assertively as she could muster. “Didn’t you just tell me that I wasn’t going anywhere?”
Ethan stared at her intently. “If you think Mr. McManus is going to stop me, then you’re wrong, little one. I’ll bind your wrists in a heartbeat and march you through that reception.”
She pulled in a shaky breath as she mentally envisioned the image he described. The worst of it was that despite the dread coursing through her body, Lily was still aware of the potent thrum of arousal simmering within her. The idea of being bound and marched through the place was worryingly alluring.
He offered Lily a wry grin. “You never let me down, Lily,” he said with a smirk. “I have to give you that. No matter how much you piss me off, your responses are always perfect.”
Lily grimaced. As per usual, he was spot on. Her body had betrayed her real needs from the first time she’d been intimate with him, and there was no point in denying it. Ethan knew her better than anyone.
“Let’s go then.” He was out of the car in a second, slamming the door and marching around to the passenger side before Lily could even take stock.
If she had been thinking straight, then she could have used those few precious seconds to flee the car, and briefly, the thought resounded in her mind as he pulled her door open, but already it was too late. Ethan was there, looming over her diminutive frame, his glower practically taking her breath away.
“Time to take my new bride to bed.”
His eyebrow arched as he made the statement, and Lily gulped at his tone. She knew better than to ask what was on his mind, but God she wanted to, and as he yanked her from the car by her wrist, her heart raced faster. This was a side of Ethan she had rarely seen. He’d been unimpressed with her, and he’d certainly dominated her, but Lily had always felt loved during those times—she’d always felt secure. As he slammed the car door behind her now, pulling her toward the entrance, Lily felt anything but safe. There was a storm in Ethan’s eyes, and the shift beckoned trouble on the horizon.
Fallen: (A Psychological Dark Romance) (The Dark Necessities Prequels Book 2) Page 22
