Chapter 2

I'm fucking shook.

I knew Lux would discover the truth eventually. And despite my fantasies about living happily ever after, her reaction was inevitable. Fuck, I'd be pissed if I were her, too.

In the end, it took both Christian and Lucas to pull her off me, and she was still swinging, screaming obscenities, calling me a cunt, and everything in between.

She's not wrong.

I am a cunt. I manipulated her to get what I wanted. I pushed past her boundaries to satisfy my own needs. I'd had my reasons, of course, but none of that matters now. She's gone, and whatever purgatory her absence creates is what I deserve.

This wasn't how it was supposed to happen.

If I'd done my job right, then I would have seduced her, convinced her to retract her statement without revealing who I was, and then broken up with her. Catch and release. Easy.

What I hadn't planned on was falling in love with her. Now that she's out of my reach, I can admit that.

What surprises me is how fucking clever she is, playing me at my own game and hiring a private investigator to sift through the lies and illusions I'd created.

Shit.

I can't help but wonder what other secrets she managed to uncover. Not that it really matters now. She despises me, as she should, and I doubt she'll ever look me in the eyes again.

"Fuck, man," Lucas says, his gaze scanning over the destruction Lux left in her wake. There's paper, shards of porcelain, and glass everywhere. It looks like a tornado ripped through the study—a tornado of my own stupidity.

After Lucas and Christian pulled her off me, she'd screamed until she was out of breath, then left. God only knows where she went, and I try to convince myself it isn't my business.

But everything about Lux is my fucking business.

"Do you know where she went?" I ask, putting a hand to my face to see if she drew blood. There's a scratch under my eye, and when I pull my hand away, there's blood coating my fingers.

It's what you deserve.

Coward.

My dad's voice floats like a specter inside my head, telling me all the things I already know. What's worse, is now Lux knows them, too.

"She went upstairs," Lucas says, plopping down into one of the wing chairs. "I asked Wyn to check on her."

Am I imagining it, or is Lucas always looking for an excuse to talk to Wyn? Nothing can happen between them though, because she's dating his cousin, Gabriel. And there's no way Lucas would make a move on his cousin's chick.

"Thanks." I grab a tissue from the desk and hold it to the scratch on my face.

Christian shakes his head and laughs. "Damn, Lux is a lot stronger than she looks. Took both Lucas and me to pull her off you."

"I was afraid she'd take your fucking head off," Lucas says to me.

Jackson leans against the desk, arms crossed over his chest. "Well, it's done and over with now. All we can do is move forward."

There is an odd relief that comes from Lux knowing the truth. But that relief is quickly tempered by the realization that I'm never going to touch her again, nestle in the warmth of her neck, or see her climax with my name tumbling from her lips.

"Fuck!" I pound my fist on the desk so hard, that my hand stings from the impact. But the pain confirms I'm awake, and not actually trapped in a fucking nightmare.

There's a second of silence, then Lucas speaks. "Dude, it had to happen. There was no other way."

I rake my hand through my hair and tilt my head back, staring up at the ceiling. "Maybe there was another way, and we just couldn't see it."

"Jackson is right, what's done is done," Christian says. "We just have to make sure she doesn't go to the police."

"And what exactly would she tell them?" Lucas asks. "She had a relationship with her attacker's brother? Technically, we didn't do anything illegal."

"We tampered with a witness," Jackson says, like duh. "How is that not illegal?"

"Eh, that's debatable," Lucas responds.

"Maybe one of us should talk to her—" Jackson says, but suddenly Nathan bursts into the room.

We all look at him, annoyed.

"Sorry to interrupt," he says in a rush. "But, Roman, you might want to, uh, get outside."

I just look at him like, what the fuck, dude?

"Lux is burning your shit," he adds.

What?

"What do you mean? What shit?" Lucas asks, putting a voice to what we're all thinking.

But Nathan is already gone, so we follow him down the hall to the kitchen and out the backdoor. Immediately, I see people gathered, but it isn't until I walk past a giant hedge that I see the smoke and flames.

"Fuck!" I say, rushing forward.

Red-orange flames lick the air, and the fuel in the center of the fire is indeed my shit. Clothes. My laptop. Papers. An ocean breeze sweeps through, feeding the flames.

Well, fuck.

As people rush to grab the hose from the side of the house, I look up to see Lux on the other side of the bonfire. She's looking right back at me, her eyes narrowed, her beautiful lips pressed into a hard line.

Yeah, I've really fucked up, and I have a feeling Lux is going to make me feel that fuck-up on every level.

She walks around the fire, headed for the back door, pausing to glare at me. "You can find somewhere else to sleep," she says before walking off.

I watch her leave, awed by her strength. Gone is the confused girl who attended the Preference Ceremony a few weeks ago. The woman in her place is confident, full of rage, and taking no prisoners.

I may have finally met my match.

The guys settle in around me, and we all stand there in shock, watching the flames devour everything I fucking own.

"I think we've just ushered Lux right into her bad bitch era," Christian says, hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, I really didn't see that coming…" Lucas says, his gaze never leaving the flames. "Bad Bitch Lux was not on my bingo card for today."

"It wasn't on anyone's bingo card," Christian replies.

"Sorry about your stuff, man," Nathan says flatly.

"Doesn't matter," I say.

I've never really given a fuck about material things. I can buy new shit. There are some things, though, that aren't so easily replaced. I glance over my shoulder to the back door where Lux disappeared, and wonder if I'll ever find someone like her again…