Chapter 16
Bliss
I should’ve known better than to let myself feel safe for too long.
That thought hit me almost violently the second I stepped into the hallway and saw Luke leaning against the wall outside the bathroom like something dragged up from the worst years of my life.
Every ounce of warmth inside me died instantly.
The noise from the backyard still carried faintly through the house behind us—music, laughter, somebody yelling near the grill—but it sounded farther away now. Muffled. Distant. Like the house itself swallowed sound whole the second I saw him standing there.
Luke pushed away from the wall slowly when his eyes landed on me, and fuck, even now he could still make my body react before my brain caught up.
Not attraction.
Never that.
He was repulsive to me now, but my body still recognized him as danger before my brain had time to catch up.
My shoulders locked automatically, pulse spiking hard enough I could hear it in my ears while every instinct inside me screamed danger before he even opened his mouth.
Because this was the version of Luke people never saw.
Not the charming former hockey player with the easy smile and polished voice. Not the hometown golden boy everybody defended automatically.
This Luke looked wrong, like something ugly moving underneath his skin already.
“You brought Mercer again?” His voice stayed low, but rage curled beneath every word.
I shut the bathroom door behind me quietly without answering right away because fear only fed him. Luke loved reactions. Loved feeling people shift around him emotionally.
Especially me.
“Yep,” I said evenly.
Luke laughed once under his breath, but there wasn’t anything remotely amused about the sound. “You think I’m patient, Bliss?”
My stomach tightened hard. “Excuse me?”
“You think I don’t see what’s happening?” He took another step closer. “You parading some fucking hockey star around trying to make me jealous?”
“Oh my gosh.” I stared at him incredulously. “You are genuinely insane.”
His expression darkened instantly, and there it was. The switch. One second calm and the next terrifying.
Luke moved so fast I barely had time to react before his hand closed around the back of my neck hard enough to slam me backward against the bathroom wall.
Pain exploded instantly through my skull.
“Luke—”
“Don’t.” His voice dropped lower, rough with fury while his fingers tightened viciously beneath my hairline. “Do not stand there pretending you don’t know exactly what you’re doing.”
The back of my head hit the wall again when he yanked me closer, fingers twisting the skin at the back of my neck cruelly until he was pulling the tiny baby hairs at the nape.
Tears burned instantly behind my eyes from the sharpness of it, and pain shot down my spine.
My breath caught hard, but there was no way I would give him the fucking satisfaction of seeing he was hurting me or scaring me.
The hallway suddenly felt too narrow. Too hot. His body crowded into mine while stale nicotine, expensive cologne, and sweat wrapped around me so thick it made nausea climb violently into my throat.
And somehow that smell still triggered panic faster than anything else, because it smelled like every bad memory I had. Every locked car or bedroom door. Every ignored no. Every apology I stopped believing years ago.
“You think I’m gonna sit out there and watch you flirt with another guy?” Luke hissed, face too close now. “In front of me?”
I shoved hard against his chest, fury burning hotter than fear for once. “Get your hands off me.”
His grip only tightened.
The skin beneath my hair burned viciously where he pinched and twisted it harder, forcing my head back against the wall while his eyes searched my face with that same sick possessiveness that always made my stomach turn.
“You wore those shorts for him?” he demanded quietly. “That little fucking tank top? Lip gloss? What, you wanted Mercer daydreaming about fucking you all day? In front of not just me, but your dad and brothers too? You are a fucking cock-teasing whore.”
Rage exploded through me so fast it almost drowned out the fear.
“You are a rapist and woman abuser. In my world—hell, the world’s definition of that is a coward.”
Luke smiled then.
That was always the scariest part. Smiling because the sick fucker enjoyed inflicting maximum fear.
“You think he actually gives a shit about you?” he asked softly, thumb digging bruisingly beneath my jaw now. “You’re a fun little distraction to a guy like that, Bliss. That’s all.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“I swear on my mom’s love I will fucking scream, Luke.”
Something flickered across his face then.
Excitement.
“Go ahead.”
My stomach dropped instantly as Luke leaned closer until his mouth nearly brushed my ear, his voice lowering into something almost conversational.
“Let’s tell them everything, baby.” His grip tightened painfully against the back of my neck again. “Tell your daddy all the filthy little things you begged me to do to you.” He laughed quietly under his breath. “Or better yet…”
His free hand slid into his pocket before he pulled his phone out slowly.
“Maybe I’ll show them.”
Ice flooded my bloodstream instantly.
“No.”
“Oh yeah.” His smile widened cruelly while he unlocked the screen. “I kept everything.”
Panic detonated violently in my chest because Luke documented things. Photos, videos, even old voicemails from when I thought he loved me.
None of it was because I wanted him to.
Humiliation turned him on.
“You remember that little blue set I bought you?” he asked softly, eyes locked on my face while he scrolled. “I have the video from that night. The one where you cried after because you said it hurt?” He tilted his head slightly. “Pretty sure your brothers would love seeing that.”
My vision blurred instantly with rage and horror and disgust. “You sick fucking creep.”
“Careful.” His fingers dug harder against my neck. “You’re forgetting who owns those videos.”
Owns.
The word made me physically nauseous.
“You bring Cade Mercer again,” Luke continued quietly, “and maybe I accidentally send a few things around campus.” His eyes dragged slowly down my body. “Wouldn’t want everybody realizing how depraved their sweet little Bliss Bennett actually is.”
My chest heaved hard with fury. Suddenly all I could think about was Cade outside laughing with my brothers while Luke stood here trying to poison everything good I touched.
And something inside me finally snapped.
I shoved against him again, harder this time. “You don’t own me.”
Luke’s entire face changed as cold rage flooded in instantly.
His hand clamped brutally against the back of my neck again before slamming me harder into the wall, pain bursting sharply behind my eyes.
“You really wanna test me today?”
Fear flashed hot through me then.
Real fear.
Not because of me either. Because Cade was here. My family was here. And Luke suddenly looked unstable enough to burn every good thing in my life straight to the ground if I pushed him too far.
Voices drifted faintly through the house then, closer now. Someone laughed near the kitchen while floorboards creaked softly beneath moving footsteps, the sound carrying down the narrow hallway alongside music and the smell of barbecue smoke drifting in through the screened back door.
Luke heard it too.
I watched the change happen in real time.
One second rage twisted his face hard and ugly, fingers bruising against the back of my neck while his breathing came rough through clenched teeth.
The next second his entire expression smoothed over almost unnaturally fast, like watching something monstrous pull human skin back over itself before anybody else could see what lived underneath.
That switch always terrified me most.
Not the yelling. Not even the violence.
It was the ease.
The way he could go from cruel to calm in the span of a heartbeat if somebody else might walk in.
His grip loosened slightly against my neck, but not enough to let me go. Just enough to lean closer until I could feel his breath against my cheek while my pulse slammed violently against my ribs.
“That’s what I thought,” he murmured softly.
Then he kissed me with such hate it was like he was trying to leave fingerprints somewhere deeper than skin.
Humiliation and fury exploded through me instantly because this wasn’t affection to Luke. It never had been. Everything with him was ownership. Punishment disguised as intimacy.
The second his mouth left mine, I shoved him hard enough his shoulder slammed against the hallway wall.
“You make me sick,” I snapped, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. “And don’t twist that into some warped fantasy where I’m angry because I still care. I don’t. You make me physically sick.”
Luke just smiled that same awful smile that never reached his eyes.
Then his gaze shifted suddenly past me toward the kitchen entrance behind us, and for one horrifying second my stomach dropped so violently I thought Cade was standing there watching everything.
But nobody was there yet.
Still, Luke saw the panic cross my face immediately. That smile widened slowly while his eyes dragged over me like he could already smell blood in the water.
“Fix your face, baby.”
Then he stepped back casually, straightening his shirt like he hadn’t just threatened my entire life inside my childhood home before disappearing toward the backyard where laughter and music still carried through the open screen door like the world outside hadn’t just tilted sideways.
And I stayed there frozen against the wall trying to breathe through the panic clawing up my throat.
My neck throbbed viciously where his fingers had twisted into the soft skin beneath my hairline. I could already feel heat blooming there beneath the loose strands of my hair while nausea rolled hard in my stomach from the lingering smell of his cologne still trapped against my skin.
Outside, somebody shouted Cade’s name followed immediately by my brothers laughing loud enough to rattle the old framed family photos hanging beside me.
The sound nearly shattered me.
Because for a few stupid, beautiful minutes, I’d actually forgotten this was my real life.
Forgotten that men like Luke didn’t disappear just because someone better came along.