I Dare You by Lylah James

Riley and I parked three houses away and stared at Colton’s corner townhouse. After a few minutes of silence, we walked up to his porch and blinked. “Holy shit,” Riley breathed.

The party was loud and crowded. I cringed, as a couple stumbled out, practically mauling each other. He pushed her against the house, and they were practically humping over their clothes, too drunk to care that they had an audience.

It was in that moment when I realized how bad this situation was. I shouldn’t have come here tonight. If I found Maddox’s in the arms of another woman…

Oh my God.

I almost doubled over, because the pain of that was unbearable. This was the wrong decision. I should have waited until tomorrow morning, when everything would have been calmed.

But what if…

What if he still had a woman by his side in the morning…?

What would I have done then?

Shit. SHIT! I couldn’t even bring myself to think of it. I stalked forward, climbing up the stairs, into Colton’s fancy townhouse and weaving my way through the sweaty bodies.

I spotted him instantly. Through a crowd, many feet away. It was like my eyes knew where to look, my heart knew where he was, an invisible string tugging my body toward him.

Maddox.

He sat on a couch; his long legs spread out in front of him. He wore black jeans and a black shirt, with holes in it. It looked like he hadn’t bothered to shave for many weeks, and his hair was just as messy. Maddox looked completely out of it. High and drunk.

The two girls, one on each side of him, giggled. They were practically salivating for his attention, but his stares were empty, glazed over. Maddox tipped his head back and took a long pull from his joint, inhaling that shit and breathing out a thin layer of smoke. I took a step closer, my body moving on its own accord.

The blonde girl on his right stuck her face into his neck and her hand moved to his crotch. My heart was about to fall right out of my chest, when his fingers circled around her wrist, stopping her movement. He placed her hand on his thigh, a safe distance away from his dick.

My hand went to my throat, and I clenched our dreamcatcher. I exhaled the breath I didn’t know I had been holding.

He lifted his head, looking in my direction.

Our gaze met.

I halted.

He paused.

Time just fucking stopped.

My body twitched under his gaze.

He stared.

I breathed.

The dreamcatcher dug into my palm, as my hold tightened around it. Maddox’s lips curled, and there was nothing warm about it.

Maddox slowly got off the couch and stalked toward me. His eyes were angry, crazed. He still had a bottle in his hand, and he was half drunk. I could tell by the way he stumbled toward me. I never got a word out, as he grasped me by the elbow, and started pulling me up the stairs. His fingers were digging roughly into my skin, but I didn’t care in the moment.

Maddox pulled me into a room and slammed me against the wall, as he kicked the door closed. His body pinned me to the wall. “Mad–”

His lips slammed against mine, before I could breathe out his name.

The world shut off.

Time stopped ticking.

Everything just halted, and I was stuck in this moment, on a loop.

The colors faded away.

I stopped thinking… only feeling. This. Him. His lips.

His lips feasted on me, like he had been craving for my taste all along. It was all-consuming, and with a desperation so crazed, it lingered on my skin, and I could taste it on my lips, on my tongue. He took possession of my mouth, like he owned it. Like he owned me.

And goddamn it. He did. In this very moment, he owned me.

My skin hummed under his touch. His arm circled around my hips, and he pulled me up, my toes leaving the ground, as he kept me between the wall and his body. My hands landed on his shoulders, and his muscles clenched under my fingers. His body jolted, at my touch, and he bit me. Bit me hard enough that I tasted the metallic taste of my blood on my tongue.

This was no sweet reunion.

It was a battle cry. So much anger, so much hatred, so much… passion.

I bit him back, feeling his lip swell under my teeth. Maddox groaned, low and deep, and his body shuddered. Almost violently. I didn’t know where he started, and I ended. Our blood mixed on our tongues, but we didn’t stop kissing. Didn’t stop battling for dominance. Didn’t stop… touching each other.

This kiss.

This moment.

This… feeling. Torment. Love. Fury. Passion. Resentment. Longing. Pain. So much fucking pain.

The kiss slowed, and I wondered if Maddox could feel how much I didn’t want this moment to end.

“You taste like mine… and lies. You’re a fucking liar, Lila,” he rasped against my lips.

Furious, I tore away from him and slammed my fists into his chest. He was hurting, I told myself. He didn’t mean it; I whispered in my head.

But the anger was overwhelming and the final thin thread of my sanity snapped. I stabbed my finger into his chest, hard enough that he drunkenly stumbled back. “Me? ME? I’m a liar?” I screamed into his face. “You lived with me for months and lied to MY FACE, EVERY SINGLE DAY! You started our relationship with a lie. You. Kept. Secrets. From. Me.”

His eyes darkened, and his face turned red with rage, as he bellowed back, “I never lied to you!”

I paused, my heart hammered in my rib cage, so hard, I thought it’d burst out of my chest. “You still think you’re right? You still think whatever you did… was the right decision?”

“I never lied to you.”

I shook my head, laughing, but there was no humor in it. My laugh sounded as dead as my heart felt. “You did. You broke me, Maddox. You broke me… more than Christian and his dad ever did. You had the power to do so, and you used it.”

“I never lied to you,” he said again, in that same lifeless tone. Like he was trying so hard to convince himself.

“What was it then, if not a lie?”

Maddox lunged forward and pushed me back. His chest slammed against mine, and he pinned me against the wall again. “I was protecting you. It wasn’t a lie. Yes, I kept secrets… but I didn’t lie, Lila. I didn’t. All I ever wanted to do was protect you. Keep you safe. Keep you happy,” he croaked. “I vowed, damn it. I VOWED IT. I loved you and that was not a lie,” Maddox snarled in my face, his eyes deranged, and oh God, I never wanted to see that wounded expression on his face, ever again.

He… loved… me.

I remembered thinking about the moment we’d confess our love to each other.

I thought it would be romantic… I dreamed it would be magical. Little did I know… Our love turned out to be a war zone.

His hands slammed against the wall on either side of my head, so close, I flinched. “But you’re a liar, Lila. You promised me you wouldn’t leave me, but you did. I needed you… and you weren’t there. I fucking needed you, and the only person I ever FUCKING LOVED WAS NOT THERE FOR ME! So, tell me, Lila. Who’s the liar?”

“You,” I whispered. I’m sorry, I cried.

His chest heaved.

My heart stuttered.

Maddox stepped back. My knees weakened.

“You kill me, Lila.”

I squeezed my eyes closed and choked back a sob. I killed him…

No, I had been trying to save him… to protect him… to make the right decision.

Maddox grabbed the bottle again and downed the rest of it, barely a grimace on his face. I killed him…

Maddox Coulter was a god amongst mortals. He was enraged, a bitter and wounded god. And I wondered if I made a mistake by falling in love with a man like him.

I watched, as he finished the bottle and started rummaging through the mini fridge, taking out another one. God, he was going to drink himself to oblivion. He was going to drink himself to a slow… death.

I swallowed back a cry and rubbed a hand over my face. My tongue felt heavy in my mouth, but I licked my dry lips and tried again. “I didn’t come here to fight, Maddox.”

“You came here to fuck,” he deadpanned, with no emotions whatsoever.

“No,” I breathed through the pain. “I found out… about your father. That he’s… sick.”

“Oh, you pity me?” Maddox threw my words back at me. “How sweet. Lila Garcia needed to make herself look like a little angel, coming to my rescue.”

I flinched but pressed forward. “I broke up with you, but I’m still your best friend. We used to have each other’s back, and I came here… because I thought I could offer you my friendship.”

He didn’t respond. Barely even acknowledged my words, except for a small twitch in his granite jaw. My hands trembled, so badly, that I had to press them against my thighs, trying to stop the shaking. “Have you… talked to your… father?”

Silence.

“You mom called me.”

Utter broken… silence.

“Please, I’m trying. I want to be here for you, right now. I might have broken up with you, walked away… But I’m not giving up on you or bailing on our friendship. If you need me, I’ll be here. I’m trying.”

Finally, he gave me a response.

Maddox’s face darkened. He stepped closer, crowding into my space and pushing me back against the wall.

“Maddox–” I started, but he cut me off with a low snarl, his chest vibrating with the cruel sound.

My chest cracked, wide-open, and the fissures of my broken heart scattered on the ground at our feet.

His eyes blazed with rage and... raw pain. “I’m self-destructing every time I look at you, every time my eyes seek you out when we’re in the same room. You make destruction and melancholy taste like sweet, sweet fucking poison.”

His hands came up, landing on either side of my head. His minty breath whispered across my lips, a tempting touch, but our lips didn’t meet. His mouth curled on the side, a sardonic smile.

“It hurts because you’re not mine. It hurts because we could have been good together, but you decided to give up on us.”

No. No. No.

His voice was rough and stiff, as he spoke, his words slicing through the air and through me like a sharp sword. He left me bleeding on the spot, and his eyes told me he didn't care. “So spare me the speech and get the fuck out.”

My heart lurched and bled, the organ so fragile, it couldn't bear the assault of his words. His dark gaze went to my throat, and we both stopped breathing for a mere second.

There was an unreadable expression on his face. A flash of pain echoed in his eyes, before it was gone. I whimpered, as he curled a finger around my necklace.

Our dreamcatcher.

Snap.

My eyes widened, and I choked back a gasp. A single tear slid down my cheek, as he snapped the necklace away from my neck, holding it up between us.

“I’ll be taking this back,” Maddox said, his voice raw and sharp, laced with enough heartbreak that my knees weakened, and I slid to the ground.

He... took... my necklace. Snatched it right from my neck...and...

My lungs seized, and a wounded sob tore through my throat.

Holding our dreamcatcher in the palm of his hand, he walked away.