Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 147734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Wait a minute.
Is Cyrus perhaps the guy that awakened Yulian’s attraction to men…?
No, that can’t be right. Otherwise, they’d be together.
Besides, what are the chances of Cyrus also being gay or bi?
Slim to none.
Not impossible, though.
Now I’m recalling how Niko insisted that Cyrus is queer at the camp, and my eye twitches.
He stares at me harder when I don’t reply to his question.
“What I do to Yulian is up to me,” I say calmly. “Whether I indulge him, use him, or ruin him completely is not something that you or anyone else can stop.”
“You’re baiting him.” He narrows his eyes. “You might think it’s just harmless fun or mindless sex, but for him, it has an entirely different meaning, especially since…”
He trails off, and it’s my turn to frown. “Especially since what?”
“I know exactly what you’re doing.” He ignores my question. “You’re using him for your sexual awakening or experimental phase or whatever, but then you’ll leave, exactly like you’ve been doing all this time, and maybe you think he’s your booty call or sex doll, but have you thought of why he approached you again after four whole years?”
I can recognize a mental warfare tactic when I see one, and Cyrus is definitely indulging in that at the moment. Ever since he came into the room, he’s been provoking me, hoping for what? A reaction?
Why?
I suppose he probably despises me as much as I do him, but still, there’s no need for him to be this defensive.
“If you intended to tell me, you would’ve already.” I raise a brow. “I suppose that was only meant to keep me guessing?”
“Do you believe it was a coincidence that Yulian was in that New York restaurant, at the same time you were, in a city he has absolutely no links to?”
My jaw clenches. “I suppose not.”
“You suppose right. You see”—he slides a hand in his pocket and sounds detached—“Yulian only joined this university because Jeremy, Killian, and Gareth did, so he assumed you’d follow once it was time for college. Only, you didn’t, probably because he was here.”
I narrow my eyes.
“What? I know you were avoiding him as much as he was searching for the merest hint of you.” He pauses, raising a brow. “At any rate, he planned the whole restaurant thing, including sleeping with your girlfriend, not only to get rid of her, fully aware of your aversion to disloyalty, but also to provoke you, so you’d have a grudge against him and come to this college to fix it.”
“And?” I say, sounding unimpressed. “I’m conscious of his attempts. Is there a point you’re trying to reach?”
“He had a reason for doing all of that.”
“Which is…”
“Revenge.”
“Revenge for what?”
“You betrayed him once, Vaughn, and he never forgot about it.”
“Betrayed him?” I repeat incredulously. “Me?”
He says nothing.
“What the hell are you talking about, Cyrus? When on earth did I betray him?”
“You’ll have to figure that out yourself.” He points down the hall. “Exit’s that way. And for the love of God, don’t ever show up here again. That is, if you don’t want him to be killed by his father. Though I don’t believe you care about the prospect.”
What the fuck is that supposed to mean?
Cyrus is baiting me, it seems, or just doing everything under the sun to piss me off.
And because he wants a reaction, I give him none as I start to walk.
“And, Vaughn?”
I stare back at him over my shoulder to be greeted with the gun he’s pointing at me. “You’re wrong. You can’t use or ruin him. If you hurt him this time…”
He pulls the trigger, the bullet hitting a painting a few inches away from my face.
“That bullet will be in your head,” he says as he turns around and leaves, gun in hand.
I glare at his back, not because of the threatening stunt, but what he said about betrayal and revenge.
If you hurt him this time?
When the fuck did I hurt Yulian the last time? If anything, it’s because of him that I—
No. I’m not thinking about that.
My jaw grinds as the most pertinent thought punctures the surface.
Revenge.
Cyrus said Yulian only approached me for revenge. It’s why he slept with Danika and has been pursuing me so closely and persistently.
Revenge.
Fucking revenge?
My chest squeezes as my whole body that’s been captured in bliss since last night tenses, all pleasure replaced with pain and dread.
But it’s fine because it was only sex.
And sex doesn’t mean anything.
At all.
25
YULIAN
Ireach out, expecting the press of warm flesh, only to brush against cold sheets.
My hand sweeps over the bed, desperate to find the lingering heat that wrapped around me last night, but there’s nothing.
Light slashes in through the tall windows, burning against my eyes as they crack open. I turn, and sure enough, the bed is empty.
No Vaughn.
Even his scent, the one I clung to like a sedative last night—or early this morning, or whatever—is fading into nothing.