Chapter 56

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

Ellery

Ryker was in a particularly foul mood when we got together the next night, which made our fun times even more fun. We met in the same place, but he didn't bring another dummy.

Instead, he barked at me to follow him before stomping into the trees. I jogged to catch up with his long-legged strides; it took more time than I would have liked, and each step irritated me more.

"There's a river nearby," he said when I caught up. "We'll work with your ability to manipulate water and rain today. It's been a while."

I was slightly breathless as I strove to keep up with him. "What's the rush?"

"We have a lot of work to do and little time."

"Oh, so we have a deadline for your plan now?"

"No, but we have to speed things up."

I frowned at his surly expression. "What happened between last night and tonight?"

He didn't respond, and though we'd been going out of our way not to touch each other, I grasped his wrist and pulled him back. I ignored the familiar and enticing sensation of how my body reacted whenever it came into contact with his.

He wasn't in the mood for anything other than a fight. I'd purposely stayed off birth control as an extra way to keep what happened between us last week from happening again, and this was more important than my overstimulated sex drive when it came to him. Still, I'd missed touching him, and it took all I had to keep from caressing his arm.

"What happened?" I asked.

He scowled as he jerked his wrist free. "That's none of your concern, Ellery ."

"This whole thing is my concern, Ryker ." I said his name in the same bitter tone he'd spat mine at me. "You want to use me and my abilities to your advantage, so you don't get to treat me like this because you're in a pissy mood."

When he stood and stared at me with cool indifference in his icy eyes, I planted my hands on my hips and scowled back at him. "What's the matter? You couldn't get fucked last night?"

I regretted the taunt as soon as it left my mouth. I'd prefer not knowing what he did when we weren't together, and I couldn't think about him being with other women.

It hurt to consider the possibility he was with someone else, never mind having him confirm it. I already had the memory of the blonde in the carriage, sucking his dick from when I robbed him, and the memory of that woman in the bordello.

I didn't need Ryker and more women living in my head.

A cruel gleam came into his eyes. "I get fucked anytime I want, so you don't have to worry about that."

"I'm not worried at all… unless it affects our arrangement. I won't tolerate you being angry at me for something I didn't do."

"Oh, believe me, you've done plenty to deserve my anger. There are times when looking at you pisses me off."

I recoiled a little. Things hadn't been great this week, but he'd never been this vicious. "Fuck you!"

He stepped so close our chests brushed. That familiar crackle of connection raced over my skin as my breath caught, and I ached to pull him closer and lose myself to him.

This was not the time for my body to desire him, especially when he was looking at me with such contempt and being such a dick. I did my best to squash that desire.

"Do you want to, Ellery?"

"Do I want to what?"

"Fuck me."

"No! Not when you're like this."

"I bet if I slid my hand inside your pants, I'd discover you're already wet for me and that another lie just tumbled from your lips."

Without thinking, I planted my hands against his chest and shoved him. Normally, he was like trying to move a mountain, but I was so incensed that I pushed him away from me a little.

"No!" I shouted. "You don't get to treat me like that! I was wrong to keep things from you, and I should have told you about your father sooner. I know I deceived you and lied to you, but that was the past, and you know everything now… everything!

"I've bared my soul to you and told you things that Scarlet, my best friend since birth, doesn't know about me! You know my deepest secrets. You know the things that could get me locked away, killed, raped, bred, and tortured. I have given it all to you; I've apologized and promised there wouldn't be any more secrets and lies between us. I meant it!

"So you don't get to stand here and tell me I'm lying because I'm not . I'll never deny that I dream of you, think of you, love you, and desire you, but I do not want you when you're like this! You don't get to treat me badly because something, or someone else, pissed you off. That's not the way this is going to work, so you can fuck off , Ryker!"

To my surprise, his face softened at my words. A stunned look came into his eyes as I stood with my shoulders heaving.

I resisted punching him in his too-handsome, recently shaved face. Who did he shave for?

I hated myself as soon as the question entered my mind, and I hated him for it. I was wrong for keeping things from him, but I wouldn't be his punching bag.

"Ellery—"

I lifted my finger and pointed it at him. "I swear, if you accuse me of lying to you or keeping secrets from you again, I'll leave. I don't care what it means for Tempest and everyone else; I won't allow you to abuse me in such a way. I was wrong before, but I don't deserve for you to treat me like shit because of it. I beat myself up enough about everything; I can't, and won't , take it from you too."