All The Lies (Lies & Truths Duet #1) by Rina Kent

I meet his punishing gaze with my defiant one.

You won’t get to me. Not now. Not ever.

His upper lip twitches as if he heard my internal challenge and accepted it.

He thrusts his finger inside my mouth, coiling it against my tongue. I gasp, but the sound is muted by his forceful shove.

His shoulders broaden even more and he appears like the Grim Reaper out to harvest lives—starting with mine.

My teeth graze his skin, and I pause, contemplating my next move.

“Bite and I’ll hurt you back,” he says, as if hearing my thoughts.

I glare up at him but continue.

The harder he glides his finger against my tongue, the faster I lick, lapping against his single digit.

The more diligent I become, the more furious his eyes turn. No idea if it’s rage or lust or both.

A flash of heat coils down my spine the more I suck him, but I don’t stop. If I keep that look in his eyes, he’ll leave me in peace.

My mouth opens farther as I take more of his forefinger inside. I don’t even know what I’m doing, but I feel something seeping out of him and rushing to me.

A sense of power.

A shift in dynamics.

His mask is slipping and a demented gleam shines in his eyes.

I can keep on disarming him, and soon, he won’t only leave me be, he might as well disappear from my life and—

He pulls his finger back as suddenly as he shoved it inside, and I release it with a pop.

His face returns to the calm façade, the impenetrable façade.

My breathing comes out harsh and irregular as I try to regain control over my senses.

Exhaustion rears on my nerve endings and my lids slowly flutter closed. Must be the meds. Good—something to take away the pain.

The bed shifts as Asher stands up, staring down at me with malice and…something else.

Maybe it’s that something else, or maybe it’s the fact I have no one here except for him. I just don’t want to be alone.

The company of a monster is better than no company.

In the haziness of sleep, I murmur, “Don’t…leave.”

“You owe me. I’m not leaving anymore.”





When I wake up the next day, a small part of me hopes whatever happened yesterday was a nasty nightmare.

I’m not in the hospital. I didn’t lose my memories. I don’t have a fiancé who calls me a monster.

The white walls surrounding me and the scent of bleach negate the first option.

My heartbeat picks up when I search my surroundings for those sinister, terrifying eyes. My entire body kicks into gear, tightening and shuddering for a fight.

He’s not here.

I release a breath. Maybe that part was indeed a nightmare.

“Reina?”

My muscles lock as I turn to my side. Pain explodes in the back of my head and I wince. It’s like a dull ache gripping my entire system.

“Take it easy, Rei.” An older man’s face comes into view as he helps me into a comfortable sitting position.

He’s wearing a dark brown, Italian-cut suit. His short, dark hair is styled to perfection and his sharp green eyes look so much like…Asher.

“You’re Asher’s father?”

“You remember me.” He smiles, and it reaches his eyes. “I was worried when the doctors mentioned amnesia.”

“I still don’t remember. You just look so much like him.”

“I see.” He unbuttons his jacket and sits down on the stool beside me. “I’m Alexander Carson, Asher’s father and your guardian of sorts.”

“My guardian? Aren’t I twenty-one?”

“Almost twenty-one, yes. I was your legal guardian until you turned eighteen, and since you continued to study in Blackwood, I remain your next of kin.”

Oh. Okay.

“Then that should mean Asher and I aren’t engaged.” I couldn’t hold in the smile in my voice even if I tried.

It was a nightmare.

“Yes, you are, Rei.”

My good mood falls like an atomic bomb. “I can’t be engaged to my foster brother.”

He smiles in a reassuring kind of way, like the nurse. “I became your legal guardian your senior year of high school, but you and Asher were engaged long before that. Besides, you never really lived together. Asher has been studying at Oxford for the past three years.”

Oxford. That’s in England. Phew. So he’ll go back there and leave me here in peace.

Problem solved.

I focus back on Asher’s father with newfound interest. Unlike Asher’s, his eyes are a lighter green with a meaner shape. His lips are thinner, too. It’s a profile of a man in power, I don’t know how I know it, but I do.

“You said you became my legal guardian my senior year?”

He passes me a glass of water, and I drink even though I’m not thirsty. “Correct.”

“W-what happened to my parents?” My heartbeat skyrockets and I grip the glass tight as I wait for his reply. Something tells me I won’t like it.

A sheen of sadness covers his features. “Your mother died during childbirth and you lost your father in an accident. Gareth was my best friend and partner. He named me as your guardian in his will.”

Oh.

Pressure builds behind my eyes and a strange sense of grief hits me. It’s not only because of my parents’ deaths, but also because I don’t remember any of it.