It’s as if my head already knows the answer and those are not it.
“What are you doing here?” He drags his thumb down my cheek then grips my chin with both his fingers. “Weren’t you supposed to have a night out with the girls?”
“I…I…”
“You lied. That’s what you did. Do you know what happens when you lie to me?” He drags his nose down my cheek, and I hold my breath.
“Ash, I…” I clear my throat, as if that’s enough to dissipate the cloud suffocating me. “I thought you were Jason.”
“You thought I was Jason,” he repeats, his voice gaining a lethal edge. “First you lied, then you thought I was Jason. Those are two strikes, my slut.”
“D-don’t call me that.” Even as I say the words, I don’t mean them. In a deep part of me, I like being called that by him just like before.
Just like before?
Oh, God. It is him.
It’s really him.
“But you are…” He darts his tongue out and drags it over my bottom lip, making me shiver. “My slut.”
I’m too lightheaded to think or form any words. I just stand there like a deer caught in the headlights. “B-but Lucy showed me a picture of you at a Halloween party in England last year. You…you couldn’t have been here.”
“That was a day before. I asked my friend to post it late.”
“Why?”
“Because.”
What is that supposed to mean? He didn’t want me to find out? He was fucking with my head? Which exactly?
“I’m here.” He licks my lips again, as if tasting them for the first time. “Why did you want to meet?”
When I don’t speak, his fingers leave my jaw and wrap around my throat so tight, I nearly suffocate.
“What did you plan to do with Jason?”
“N-nothing,” I choke out.
“You expect me to believe that?” He snarls at my face.
“I only wanted to ask him about Arianna. That’s all.”
“Why have you become such an expert liar?”
I glare up at him with all the energy I have considering his hand is cutting off my air supply. “I’m not lying. You are.”
That causes him to loosen his grip a little, but he still has me pinned against the door. His free arm slams above my head so he’s leaning on it and staring down at me. “I am?”
“You knew who I was all along, but you never once considered telling me who you are. You’re a fucking liar, Ash.”
It hits me then—all the things I told him via messages, every dark thought I talked about and confessed, not to mention all the sexual things we did in the past.
He owned a part of me and made me feel bad, thinking I cheated on him.
The asshole.
He strokes his thumb over my pulse point. “You knew.”