“I don’t believe you.”
She shrugs. “You don’t have to. I’m just trying to warn you. Waylon will come after me. He’s not just a fling. He’s the only man I’ve ever loved. And somehow, he feels the same way about me. He loves me. He’d die for me. He won’t give up searching for me once he realizes I’m taken.”
Liesel is an excellent liar, but it doesn’t feel like she’s lying now. She has to be. She can’t be engaged. She can’t want another man. She can’t…
“As I recall, you told him you’d be gone for three weeks. So we have at least that long before he suspects anything.”
She shakes her head. “He’ll expect me to call, to text. We’ve never gone three weeks without a healthy round of phone sex. You saw how we fucked on the cameras, don’t deny it. He’ll come looking for me before three weeks.”
“That display of sex wasn’t love!” I yell in her face.
“How the hell would you know? You haven’t ever been in love!”
I open my mouth to scream a truth and stop myself at the last second. I will never admit the truth.
Instead, I grab her arm and pull her into the bathroom.
“Clean yourself off. I’ll be back tonight, and you and I will have a little chat about your lying. Until then.”
I step back and slam the bathroom door shut, locking her inside.
My blood is boiling. The only person in the world who can drive me this mad is now locked in my bathroom. Those walls won’t hold her. If she decides she wants to escape, she can.
The only way to prevent her from running is being with her, but I can’t stay here another moment. I need a break. I need to remember why I’m doing this.
Fuck, I need Liesel out of my life for good.
19
Liesel
It may look like Langston just got the upper hand. I’m locked in his bathroom, after all.
But I won.
I pushed enough buttons that Langston can no longer stand the sight of me. He’s losing control already.
He said he’s going to kill me, and I believe him.
He said he’s learned patience—that I don’t believe. If I can get him to lose control, maybe he’ll slip, say some hint of his truth or give me a clue of how I can escape.
He ran off instead of laying down the law like he wanted to.
I grin wide.
I’m not going to worry about Langston. Right now, I’m going to enjoy this glorious bathroom—a bathroom I dreamed about when we were kids.
This house only confuses me more. Why did Langston build the house we dreamed of as kids? Why, if he’s hated me this entire time? Wanted me dead?
So he could torture me with it, that’s why.
I won’t let him win. I’ll enjoy every second of my time in this house, and I won’t let him control me.
The entire house is built to enjoy the elements. The bathroom is no different. The shower and tub sit just outside of the main house amongst exotic plants, providing some privacy but allowing you to shower outside while looking at the ocean. There is a freestanding sink attached to the house, and a door that leads to what I assume is the toilet room.
I have my eyes on the shower and tub, trying to choose which one I’m going to use. I suspect Langston will have me locked in here all day, so I decide to shower first to get the muck off, then bathe to soothe my sore muscles.
I step into the glass shower filled with more buttons than a computer after stripping out of my dirty clothes and leaving them in a pile on the bamboo floor.