Lethal Temptations (Tempted #5) Read Online Free Page B

time lifting her chin with my index finger.
    Touch.
    I wanted to touch her.
    I needed it.
    I shook my head, raging against the need, trying to convince myself that it was the drugs fucking with me. I wanted to believe that deep inside me I was a good guy, that I had morals, maybe not many but enough to know touching her was fucking wrong.
    So fucking wrong.
    “You know what today is don’t you?” She asked, looking away for a moment before she turned back
    “Yeah,” I muttered, staring at her lower lip as it quivered slightly. “I know. Is that why you’re here? Checking in on your old man?”
    She lifted her eyes to mine.
    “No,” she whispered.
    “Then tell me why.”
    She remained quiet as she studied my features. I opened my mouth to speak, but she shook her head, cocking it to the side as she laid her hand on my thigh and leaned close.
    “Does it ever go away?” She asked barely audible.
    I glanced down at her hand and closed my eyes as it burned a hole in my jeans, lighting my whole body on fire.
    Drugs man, they’ll fucking ruin you.
    Wreck you.
    Destroy you.
    I shoved her hand away, narrowing my eyes at her.
    “What are you doing, Lace?”
    “I asked you a question,” she said, her hand closing over my wrist. “Does it ever go away? Tell me it goes away Blackie, tell me this isn’t it,” she whispered, her eyes pleading with mine.
    “Does what go away?”
    “The pain,” she replied, tightening her hold on my wrist as she peered at me. “It doesn’t,” she said, answering her own question. “Look at you,” she added. “The pain never left you. It’s written all over your face, it’s there, alive in your eyes but the rest of you is dead.”
    “You in pain, Lace?” I asked hoarsely. “Came here looking for someone to make it go away?” I ground out.
    She shook her head.
    “I came here, hoping someone, anyone, would see me .”
    “I see you,” I said as her hand dropped from mine.
    “You see what I allow you to. No one sees the real me,” she whispered.
    She was going to fucking bury me.
    “Show me what you’re hiding,” I coaxed. “Take off your armor, peel back your mask and let me see you. Otherwise you’re going to let that shit tear you down. Pain is a bitch and it’ll swallow you whole if you let it.”
    “Like you did?” She snapped. “You haven’t let anyone in, never ‘peeled back your armor’, you never gave anyone your pain, never gave anyone a chance to take it away from you. You hang onto it like it’s an organ you need to survive.” She paused, sucking in a deep breath. “We’re not that different, Blackie. You and I, Leather and Lace, on the outside we’re total opposites but inside, deep down inside, we’re the same.”
    “God, I hope not,” I said, twisting in my stool as I stared at her.
    I wanted to hang on to the belief that there was still good in this world, still purity and it was there looking back at me.
    Then I saw her.
    The Lacey she hid behind, the fractured soul that was tortured by the pain no one knew existed in the sweet girl with the pretty smile.
    I saw her.
    And I wish I hadn’t.
    She wouldn’t just bury me.
    She’d own me.
    She’d make me wish I had given up the pain.
    She’d make me wish I was a better man.
    Someone who could take away her pain.
    A man fit to rescue her from her demons.
    She’d make me wish I wasn’t a fucking junkie with a death wish.
    She moved off her stool, stood in front of me and took one dangerous step toward me and then another, until I felt her breath against my face.
    “Don’t,” I said.
    “Look at me,” she whispered.
    The addict in me surfaced, and I was drawn to her like any other toxic substance, lifting my eyes to hers.
    “Do you see me, Blackie?” She asked, taking my face in her hands, her fingertips brushing over the scruff hiding my face.
    She leaned closer, her lips just a breath away from mine.
    “Say it,” she demanded, as she pressed her lips to the corner of my mouth.
    I