Twisted Hate: An Enemies with Benefits Romance

I know something you don’t. And you’re not going to like it when you find
out...
“That’s not all.” Jules’s voice shook so violently she sounded like a
distorted version of herself. 
My foreboding hardened into icy disbelief when she reached into her
purse and retrieved three additional items. 
My watch. My iPad. My rolled-up wad of emergency cash. 
No.
She set them on the coffee table, the tremble in her hands matching the
one in her voice. 
No, no, no.
“Tell me you hunted down the thief and recovered those items.” I barely
heard myself over the roar in my ears. “Tell me the burglar had a crisis of
conscience and dropped those items on my porch when I was in the shower
and you found them. Dammit, Jules, tell me something!”
Something other than the suspicion winding its way around my throat and
choking off my air.
“I stole the items.” Jules’s confession hit me like a bullet in the chest.
Pain pierced my flesh, making me flinch. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to do it.

---

He was blackmailing me, and I didn’t know what else to do except go along
with it, and I…”
Her rambled explanation faded as the roar grew louder. Her words ran
together into a murky stream that painted the world in ugly grays and vicious
reds. 
She was the artist, and I was trapped in a surrealist nightmare of her
making.
“Who?” I latched onto the last thing I remembered hearing. 
My brain was sluggish, and it took more effort than usual to get the word
out.
Jules wrapped her arms around her waist. “Max.”
Max. The guy I met at Hyacinth. 
Liquid dark rage seeped through my veins and into my voice at the
mention of that smug-faced fucker. “Start from the beginning.” 
I listened, numb, as Jules explained everything more clearly this time—
the jobs she pulled in Ohio, her relationship with Max, her sex tape, his
blackmail, how she broke into my house and how she finally got rid of the
video and recovered the painting. 
When she finished, the ensuing silence was loud enough to deafen me.
“I’m sorry.” Jules swallowed. “I should’ve told you all this earlier, but I
didn’t want to ruin what we had when we were just starting to get along. I
wasn’t sure how you would react, and I thought…”
“You thought?”
“That if I told you about my past, it would confirm everything horrible
you’d ever thought about me.” Her voice grew smaller with each word, like
she was realizing how fucking stupid they were.
My rage pulsed harder. It leaked from my veins and spread into my chest,
hollowing it out until nothing else remained. 
Half of it was directed at Max for what he did to Jules.
The other half…
Breathe. 
“I see.” No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t summon an ounce of
warmth. My blood had iced into one solid, painful pool, and I was afraid any
movement would crack it. Splinter it into a thousand icicles that would shred
me open from the inside out. “So why are you telling me now?” 
“I didn’t want to lie to you anymore. I never wanted to lie to you, but I...”
Jules took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. “I wanted us to have

---

a fresh start. No more secrets or lies.”
“I see,” I repeated. The cold in my chest intensified. “I forgive you.”
She faltered, her face twisting with confusion at the contrast between my
words and my chilly tone. “You do?” 
“Yes.” I smiled. The movement felt strange, like I was contorting my
mouth into a position it was no longer capable of. “Come here, Red.”
The nickname tasted bitter on my tongue. 
After a moment’s hesitation, she stepped toward me. 
Even with ashen skin and dark circles shadowing her eyes, she was the
most beautiful, treacherous thing I’d ever seen. 
I curled my hand around the back of her neck and rubbed a gentle thumb
over her skin before I yanked her toward me and kissed her hard enough to
draw a whimper of pain. 
“That hurt?” 
Jules shook her head, her muscles taut beneath my touch. 
“Good.” I softened the kiss, soothing her lips with my tongue. “You
shouldn’t have lied, Red,” I whispered. “You know I hate liars.”
I detected a soft tremble in her shoulders. “I know.” 
“But you…” I dragged my mouth over the line of her jaw and down her
neck. “You are so beautiful. So sweet beneath that prickly armor you wear.
You know things about me no one else ever will.” I sank my teeth into the
curve between her neck and shoulder. “How can I stay mad at you?”
Jules let out another whimper when my hand inched beneath her skirt and
brushed over her pussy. For once, she wasn’t wet for me.
But we would change that.
I slipped my hand inside her underwear and caressed her until she flooded
my fingers and her body melted into mine. 
My movements were cold. Mechanical. I’d done them a million times,
and I watched her mouth part in little moaning gasps with apathy.
My cock strained against my zipper, hard and angry. It was a physical
reaction more than anything else, but it was the only part of me that still felt
alive.
Jules was teetering on the edge of orgasm when I yanked my hand away.
“Get on your fucking knees.”
She jerked at my harsh tone, but after a second’s hesitation, she slowly
sank to her knees without argument.
“Do you want this?” I tilted her chin up, forcing her eyes to meet mine.

---

“Tell me if you don’t, Red. This is your last chance.”
Jules’s throat bobbed with a swallow. “I want this.”
I released her chin and tugged her head back with one hand while freeing
my cock with the other. “Tap my thigh if you want me to stop.” 
That was the only warning I gave her before I shoved myself down her
throat. She gagged at the brutal invasion, her eyes welling with tears, but her
hands remained planted in her lap. 
I gripped her hair with both hands and fucked her mouth, deeper and
deeper until the obscene sound of my balls slapping against her chin mixed
with her choked gurgling. 
My jaw clenched as I stared down at her. The sight of her kneeling before
me, tears and mascara running down her cheeks while she choked on my
cock, sent an irrational wave of fury through me.
I closed my eyes and tipped my head back. That turned out to be a
mistake, because the minute I did, unwanted memories banged through my
brain.
Vermont. The clinic. Hyacinth. The picnic. Ohio.
Every puzzle piece that shaped our relationship into what it was now,
tainted.
It wasn’t about the size of Jules’s lies. I didn’t give two fucks about a
stupid painting and some gadgets. It was about trust.
All I’d ever wanted was honesty, and all I’d ever gotten was deception.
Tension knifed through my gut.
I opened my eyes and yanked my cock out of Jules’s mouth. Sweat
coated my skin, and my heart drummed a painful rhythm in my chest.
She was a mess—hair tousled, mouth swollen, cheeks streaked with tears.
She stared up at me, those huge hazel eyes saying words I didn’t want to
hear.
“Get on all fours.”
I couldn’t bring myself to look at her, but even when I fucked her from
behind, images of her seared through my brain. 
The glint of her hair in the sunlight. The fire that sparked in her eyes
when she insulted me. The softness of her palm against mine and the way her
mouth tilted up just a fraction higher on the right when she smiled. 
Pressure suffocated my chest.
Jules was close to coming. I could hear it in the way she breathed and feel
it in the way she squeezed around me.

---

It was funny how sometimes, I was attuned to her every movement, and
other times, I didn’t know her at all. 
I leaned down until my mouth hovered next to her ear. “Remember when
I said I forgive you?” I reached around to pinch her clit. “I lied.” 
Jules’s orgasm hit her at the same time my words did. She gasped out a
half sob, half moan while I came right after her.
The empty release did nothing to ease the pressure behind my ribcage.
I disentangled myself from her and stood. She slumped forward on the
ground, her dress bunched around her waist, her shoulders shaking with soft
cries.
“How does it feel to be lied to, Jules?” The raw, angry words sounded
like they came from someone else. Someone crueler than I ever thought I
could be. “Doesn’t feel good, does it?” 
The ice in my veins had melted. I was drowning from the inside out, and