Beautiful Lies (Dark Secret Society 2)

“I should have never allowed them to do this to you,” Sully said, scowling at me.

“You didn’t allow anything,” I said, forcing myself up to a sitting position. “I make my own choices, and this was one of them.”

“That’s right, lass. You keep that fight in you, and you’ll walk out of here with all your dreams. Don’t let those men gain the upper hand.” She gave me a smile, patted Sully on the back, and said, “If either of you need me, I’ll be in the kitchen.”

I didn’t watch her leave because my focus was on Sully who still sat right beside me. His brow was furrowed, dark circles underlined his eyes, and he appeared years older than he had been just yesterday. I leaned in and kissed his cheek. We’d survived. Thank God we’d gotten through and to the other side.

“Don’t worry. I’m fine,” I repeated. “We are going to be fine. But we need to stay strong. There is nothing we can’t get through. Nothing.”

“Never again,” he growled. “Do you hear me? I will never, ever hear you cry out in pain like that again. I will kill before I’d ever let that happen. Never. Ever. Again.”

He pressed his lips to mine and gave the softest kiss.

I kissed him back so I wouldn’t have to agree to his terms. I had no idea what was still to come, and if I had to scream and sob and beg on my knees and endure pain after pain before this Initiation was over, I would do it. I would do it all.

Because nothing could be worse than what would greet me on the other side if I failed.

13

Sully

Mrs. Hawthorne had lectured me to be nice. I knew I needed to be nice.

But fuck that.

I was fucking pissed. Raging. Furious.

And as much as I wanted to hold Portia, kiss her softly, whisper promises to her that I had no power to keep, what my darkest soul wanted to do was scream. I tried to hold it back. The poor girl had been burned after all. Her delicate flesh seared and singed. She needed comfort. She needed softness.

But fuck that. My fury was too big. It was a monster inside me.

“What are you thinking?” she asked, taunting the bear. She didn’t want to know what I was really thinking.

“Why didn’t you take me up on my offer?” I asked, trying to control the anger that nearly blanketed every single syllable of my question.

“Offer?”

“I offered you the money you wanted so you wouldn’t have to get the brand.”

She darted her eyes away from mine and then took a deep breath. “And I told you there was more to this than money. If you’d just be a little more patient, I could—”

But the boiling fury inside of me finally bubbled over. “Patient? You fucking branded yourself! You did it to yourself! Are you so much a whore you can’t even see the madness of what you did?”

Her mouth dropped open in shock, and then the same fire from the end of that fucking branding iron entered her eyes. Finally, fucking finally.

“Back to calling me a whore huh?” she snapped, eyes afire. “Call me what you want, but if it weren’t for me, we both would have failed the Initiation tonight. Your weak ass couldn’t handle it!”

Weak? I was the only one standing up to those twisted bastards.

“Who gives a fuck?” I shouted, jumping up from the bed and pacing the room like a caged tiger. “Who fucking cares? There are some things in life that—”

“No!” she shouted from the bed. “Quitting is not an option. Do you hear me? We. Can’t. Quit.”

I ran my fingers through my hair and concentrated on breathing. I needed a fucking drink. I need a hate fuck. I needed to run from this place and never return. I needed escape from my reality, from my past, and from my fucking future.

But only one of those options was possible.

I was going to fuck the greedy whore locked in this room with me.

Not asking. Not waiting. Not hesitating in the slightest, I charged the bed and began tearing her clothes off in a wild fury.

She could have screamed. She could have said no. She could have tried to fight.

Not that any of that would have helped.

But instead, she met my rage, my aggression, my fury head on.

“I’m going to fuck you until you cry out,” I growled, getting her naked with every word.

“Good,” she said.

“I’m going to make it hurt.”

“Good,” she growled furiously back at me.

“I’m going to treat you like the whore you are.”

“As long as that means you won’t act like the coward you are,” she countered.

Fucking bitch.

Seeing red, I flipped her onto her stomach and licked my palm as it would be the only lube she’d be getting. “You better finger yourself, play with your clit, do whatever you need to get that pussy wet. I’m going to fuck this ass of yours until you scream for mercy.”