Lust & Lies Box Set-Sexual Awakenings, Excess, Predator & Prey

Ray barely glanced my way as they descended the steps that led to the foyer. Her perfume hit me as they walked past, indifferent eyes for me from Ray and a smile from the woman on his arm.

I addressed Ray, doing away with rehearsed formality. “I need to talk to you.”

“It can wait, Taylor. It’s late. Go to bed.”

“I’m not a child!”

He paused his steps as the woman looked over her shoulder at me. She was dressed in black silk and high heels I couldn’t imagine being able to walk in.

Ray took the coward’s way out and called for Olivia.

Olivia came running with wide eyes in my direction. She read the situation and motioned for me.

“Taylor, come on now.”

“What the fuck, Ray!?”

Ray’s companion spoke first. “Whoa, the mouth on this one. She could use some discipline, Ray.”

I held my tongue. I wasn’t about to lose it all due to a tantrum. But then she looked down at me with pity.

“I’m not his child. I’m his obligation.” I gritted the next words through my teeth. “His niece.”

“She’s beautiful, Ray.”

Ray nodded, and with glossy eyes, looked me over.

“Bed.”

I looked between the two of them, and all the fight left me. I was being treated like a child because I was acting like one. If I wanted Ray’s company, I was doing a bad job of requesting it. I was at his mercy, whether I liked it or not. Still, I knew he had a soft spot somewhere for me, so I decided to manipulate it. “My apologies for interrupting your evening.” I turned to Ray, who saw through my insincere bullshit. “I just wanted to thank you for taking me in, Uncle Ray. I really am grateful.”

His eyes sliced through mine as I looked over to the woman who scrutinized me curiously. “I’ll leave you to it. Goodnight.”

The next morning, Ray was gone. He—like Daniello—was a ghost, and I lived in the shadow of his rejection.

I smoothed my hand down the silky fabric of my dress and looked back at the Battery. I was at a standstill. All dressed up, and I didn’t want to be . . . anywhere. But the flutter in my stomach told me that was a lie. I knew where I wanted to be and whom I wanted to be with. I reached into my purse and pulled out the key card. Even if he wasn’t there, I could chase his ghost.

Inside the penthouse, I flipped the light switch and gaped at the finished space. It was a different world. It had only been a few weeks since I first set foot inside and it had completely transformed. The furnishings were nothing short of luxurious, and I loved the exposed copper fixtures, the espresso-colored floors, and the metal reflection in the ceiling. It was a palace. A mix of earth and metal. I took long strides over to the king sized bed that sat in front of a diamond shaped, copper fireplace. It wasn’t the place for a bed, but I knew it had been my lover who ordered it to be placed in that exact location. He, much like the intrusive furniture, didn’t belong in my space. But his presence was entirely alluring. I unzipped my dress and slipped into the bed. It was plush and comfortable, though I was unsure if I was supposed to be there without my lover. I assumed Daniello would demand my presence when he wanted me. But he’d given me access, and somehow I felt his absence a little less in the last space we shared. And though I had no intentions of staying, I fell asleep and drifted off to the memory of his voice.

“Phoenix.”

Another day, and another, and another. Nothing. No word from my lover, just the looming feeling that I was drifting on a road to nowhere. I was becoming dependent on my surfacing feelings for Daniello, and I hated it. The longer he stayed away, the more the resentment grew for the man who controlled far too much of my time and my imagination from whatever world he escaped to. Whatever walls we’d managed to let down between us in Dyer began stacking up, twice as impenetrable with every day I slept alone in the penthouse. He’d revealed so little and expected so much. Too much. Despite my hesitance to share, he knew details about me, secrets about my life, who I was. And still, he kept me at bay and

picked me up on his whim like a toy.

I was no one’s fucking toy.

I had to face facts. I wasn’t happy with the situation. It was time to take back some control. I needed some say. Our involvement and his disappearance had only amped up the unrest in me over time. I was fighting hard to keep my emotions out of it. And still, my heart ached, my brain was fed up with thoughts of him. I was tired of waiting.

A creature of habit, I slipped on the most revealing dress I had, cut deep in both front and back and left nothing to the imagination. It fit every curve of my body, and I stared at my reflection, satisfied

Without giving it any more thought, and furious with my situation, I fired up my Chevelle and drove downtown on a mission. I mentally dug through every conversation I had with Daniello in a fruitless search for something more than what I felt at that moment: used. I felt discarded, no matter how hard I tried to keep the connection in his endless silence.

But words were bullshit. I’d learned that from Laz. Actions always spoke louder, and Daniello’s consistent absence was screaming at me to wake the hell up.

“I will return,” I mimicked snidely, as I tore through midtown and fled to King Street. I pulled up to the piano bar I’d seen Daniello at months ago and tossed my keys to the valet before I moved to the back patio. In the midst of neon blue lights that covered the dark patio, I surveyed the bar for a suitor and saw Damien Baldwin sipping expensive scotch. He drummed his fingers against his glass in time with Kings of Leon as “The End” rang out through the deck. I assessed his relaxed posture and easy smile, as if he hadn’t a care in the world. But it was just the opposite. He was on the prowl. Women flocked toward his kind of look and charm. My tastes were now on an entirely different planet than the one Damien dwelled on. But it was exactly why he was the perfect fix.

A cure for the alien who’d stolen my identity.