Liar (Madison Kate, #2)

by Tate James

Also, why the fuck was such a scary ass guy called Cass?

"I'm not telling you shit, Madison Kate," he continued, in that low, menacing voice, "because I don't fucking trust you. You're not one of us; you're just a liability." His words hurt. More than they should have.

Ouch. Every word cut like a razor. Still, I gave a throaty, mocking laugh. "You think it'd be that easy, Archer? You think one fuck and he'd be over me?" I snapped my fingers. "Just like that, huh?" Archer's handsome face turned colder than I'd even thought possible, and his next words hung in the air long after he was gone. "It sure worked for Steele."

Archer was hot, no denying that. And he'd have probably been dynamite in bed, but that didn't excuse his shitty attitude and prickly personality.

"Hopefully. But I'll also just do it to spend time with you, MK. In case you have missed all the really obvious signals, I like you. I want to date you."

And two, reverse harems required three or more love interests. Archer was not an option.

"You ran. I'm more than capable of handling myself, and you know it. We all are. You used it as a convenient excuse to hide from the fact that you'd started letting us in. You'd started letting me in, and it terrified you. So you ran." His words were cold and biting, and it tore me up inside to hear. But... he wasn't wrong. That was the most painful part. "Then on Halloween, when we tried to give you the truth about your mom and Zane, when we tried to show you the falsities within your own memories, you ran again." He sucked a breath, his nostrils flaring and his mouth a tight slash across his face. "You ran and you nearly fucking died, Madison Kate." His voice cracked over that last part, and a gut-wrenching flash of vulnerability passed across his face. Words failed me, and silence filled the room as he stared at me with his eyes like storm clouds, turbulent and mysterious. "You checked yourself out of the hospital four days ago, and you didn't even try to call and tell us you were okay. The cops must have told you we weren't responsible for what happened, but you still ran. Again." His voice was softer now, lacking the heat of his initial anger, and instead soaked in hurt and bitter disappointment. "I'm hurt and angry and so incredibly frustrated," he continued, raising a hand to cup the back of my head. His fingers gripped my hair tight enough to turn it from a tender gesture into something dominant and controlling. "But one thing I'm not, Hellcat, is over you."

"Babe, you tell him yet?" I stiffened under his arm. "Tell me what?" Steele asked, his sharp gaze taking in the casual way Kody touched me. Kody's grin was pure evil. "That MK and I are dating." Christ on a goddamn fucking cracker. If I had ever wished for a time that the ground would open and swallow me up whole, that was it. Right fucking here.

"Babe, Archer went to all the effort of actually attending classes today. The least you can do is rub his fucking face in the fact that we're hopelessly in love and probably going to fuck loudly on the table right in front of him."

"Fuck no," Kody replied, looking outraged. "Any sane man knows not to tell a woman how to eat. If pizza and chocolate gave you this banging body, I'm all fucking for it. Eat up."

I'd been a bitch and taken the passenger seat, leaving the three massive dudes all squished up in the backseat like a sexy sardine tin.

"Oh look, there goes my appetite." Holding his gaze, I dropped my full bowl of breakfast into the sink with a crash and wiped my hands off on my jeans. "Something about the stench of betrayal always turns my stomach."

"How? Those three are the walking dictionary definition of bromance, girl. They give all new meaning to the phrase bros before hos."

"Why are you down here shivering your cute ass off at this time of morning, Hellcat?"

"Um, yeah, dude. Pretty sure this is the most flattering thing anyone has ever done for me. Ever. I'm not going to lie, I'm all kinds of girly for you right now. Have I turned into one of those heart-eyes emojis? Because that's what I feel like."

"I just want to watch her punch you in the fucking face for messing around on her. Violent MK turns me on."

Steele continued eating me out like... well... like his favorite food on Earth.

"Fuck, okay!" Steele shouted. "Calm your tits, Kody. I'm sure she's just downstairs getting coffee." He shot me a curious look as he rolled off me, and I propped my head up with my hand. "Unless she's in my room?" he whispered, "Naked and freshly fucked and looking more gorgeous than I've ever seen her?"

By the time I stepped out of the bathroom, I'd only drawn one logical conclusion. Those fuckers had planted a tracker on me somehow.

"This mood swing crap is getting seriously old. Make up your fucking mind and stick with it; you either want me or you don't. I don't have the emotional capacity to navigate the minefield of your fucked up baggage."

"Screw you, Archer D'Ath. You're a damaged piece of shit, and straight up, you don't deserve me."

"I'm not high-fiving that, Kody. God damn, how do you ever get laid?" Kody's grin was pure arrogance. "Dude, have you seen me? I'm like walking sex." Steele laughed, and I groaned. He wasn't wrong, though.

"Nonsense, Madison Kate. Just meeting you and getting to know the woman in my boys’ lives has been the best gift an old woman can get."

"I'm not, Madison Kate. Have you heard you scream? I feel like I had a heart attack and an aneurysm all at once. So sit here and eat some sugary desserts while I convince myself that you're okay. Again."

Reaching up, I pulled his face down to me and kissed him. It wasn't a frenzied, passionate, let's-fuck-right-here kind of kiss, but it was definitely one to bank in my mental memory box as one of the most meaningful kisses ever.

"You're kind of amazing, Kodiak Jones,"

I didn't care how much of an asshole Archer was to me, he and Kody were goddamn walking orgasms.

I didn't sleep. I couldn't. But a small piece of my scarred soul rested at ease just lying there beside Steele. That was better than any night’s restful sleep I'd had in a long time.

"You're vicious. No wonder Steele calls you Hellcat. Never heard a more appropriate pet name in my life." I scoffed, grinning. "Nonsense, you hear me call Archer 'asshole' all the freaking time."

Humans have infinite, untapped possibilities, and I fully believe we're capable of equally strong emotions for more than one person."

"but don't even try to pretend you don't feel this magnetic pull between us. Don't fucking act like you're not basically crawling out of your own skin to fuck me right now."

"You're kinda cute, Kody." He scowled. "Shut up, I am not."

Except... this was Kody. Kodiak unflappable Jones. Damn him straight to hell. He just stared at his newly pink hair in the mirror with a considering look, then shrugged and grinned at me.

"Cute prank, babe, but now we just match. Like a real couple." His whole face lit up with mischief. "Aw, we're the cutest boyfriend and girlfriend ever. Wanna bet Archer gags on his coffee when he sees us all loved up and matching?"

"And you can call us whatever the fuck you want, so long as I get to make you scream like that again. Hottest fucking sound I've ever heard, MK."

"You know, you're really starting to reek of desperation and jealousy, Archer. If you want me so badly, maybe try a personality adjustment? Then maybe you'd stand a chance of getting what Kody got all morning... then again in the shower."

Kody was quickly working his way into my heart, and I already dreaded the day he was going to break it into pieces. Because that day was coming, as surely as the sun rose every day. Whatever they were lying to me about, it was undoubtedly going to ruin us all. So for now, I'd close my eyes to all the hints and enjoy the bliss of ignorance.

then the two of them fucking high-fived over me. They slapped hands like goddamn teenagers. It was so incredibly arrogant and... yeah, okay, it was hot as sin.

close. I fucking hoped Archer was enjoying his night in with his right hand while listening to us.

That one was getting filed straight in my mental spank bank for when I inevitably kicked these lying boys to the curb and returned to my drawer full of battery-operated boyfriends.

"Shhh, Kate, I've got you," he whispered in my ear, his huge hands stroking down my spine over and over, his arms holding me tight and totally erasing the crawling feeling of insects. "You're safe, I've got you," he whispered. "I'm never letting you go. Not ever."

I was home. I was safe. That was all that mattered. Murdering stalkers could go fuck themselves.

Maybe this wasn't exactly what the doctor meant when he’d told me to rest and take it easy for a few days, but fuck that dickhead. He wasn't living with three hotter than sin men who played my body like their own personal fuck toy. Or... two of them did. I was really, really hoping the third was about to join the party.

He was the one who just finger fucked me until I came and kissed me like I was the missing piece of his stained, broken soul. Then flipped the switch and decided I was nothing but a needy, desperate slut who was basically gagging for dick like an addict.

"Sorry, brother. You brought this mess on yourself. Maybe you'll think twice next time an in-debt businessman offers to sell his daughter."