Page 43 of Veil of Lies

I ignored him. He had no fucking clue what I was going through. None of them did. They knew I was grieving my dad, but they didn’t know we were penniless. Beholden to my grandmother for the clothes on our backs, my college education, literally everything. Until I graduated and found a job, I couldn’t support my sisters or my mother. I felt utterly helpless.

The thought of my sisters being forced to suffer the toxicity of my grandmother’s house made me want to stab someone. That woman was evil. All she cared about was money and power. She poisoned everything. She was poison.

Even her name, Lily, was apt - lily of the valley plants looked pretty, but the glycosides they contained could kill, as I’d learned in high school.

“By the way, you should thank Stella.”

My head snapped up. “What are you talking about?”

“You don’t remember?”

“Would I be asking you if I did?”

“She brought you back here last night. Poor girl was practically carrying you. I have no clue how she managed it. Me and Harley could barely lift you between us.”

The fuck?

My head pounded as I tried to focus but my memories from last night were still a mess. I couldn’t recall much of anything, least of all seeing Stella. It had to have been late when I left our apartment, so what on earth was she doing out at that time of night?

I supposed I ought to thank her. If she hadn’t intervened, I’d probably still be outside somewhere. That made me wince. If campus security had found me drunk and unconscious, my lovely grandmother would have shit a brick. Reputation was everything. While she was willing to overlook my endless conquests, she didn’t appreciate stories of me being drunk and disorderly in public.

A Walker was always in control. Drinking in private was fine, but we didn’t get drunk in public. It had been drilled into me once I hit my teens, and until now I had mostly behaved. I rarely drank at parties, and I never hit bars and clubs with the sole intention of getting wasted. Unlike my peers. As my grandmother liked to remind me, drunk people did stupid things, made idiotic decisions, and left themselves open to blackmail and worse.

“Where’s Harley?” I asked once the shock of knowing Stella had somehow been a part of my epic bender faded.

“He escorted her back to her apartment last night - or should I say this morning. Not seen him since. I assume he stayed with her.”

I didn’t miss the edge in Quinn’s voice. It was pretty obvious he had a thing for Stella. I knew about the bet they’d had. Quinn didn’t like to lose, especially not to Harley. The pair of them had had this ridiculous rivalry thing going for years. I tried not to get involved.

“Are they in a relationship now?” It bothered me just as much, but I was too hungover to care about anything. Besides, I had nothing to offer her or anyone anymore. Our family was destitute and no girl would take me seriously now. All I had left was my family name. I may be the heir apparent to my grandmother’s fortune, but that wily old bitch wasn’t about to hand me the keys to the family coffers any time soon. She’d want absolute control of my life first, and I wasn’t sure I could give her that.

“No idea. You should ask him. Catch you later, I have a class.” He grabbed his coffee-to-go mug and bag, leaving me to wallow in misery. Fuck my life.

Chapter 36

Stella

The sound of rain pattering against the window woke me. It took me a minute to gather my thoughts. My head felt like it was stuffed full of cotton wool, and I was too hot. I tried to move, but a heavy arm pinned me to the mattress. In an instant, the previous night’s shenanigans came back to me, along with a healthy dose of anxiety.

What the fuck was I thinking letting Harley stay over, again? I mentally berated myself. This was bad. I was starting to worry that I had completely misread the situation. What if he wanted more from me? I had nothing to offer. The minute he found out who I was, we were done. There was no point in me catching feelings for him or anyone else. Extricating myself from a mess like that would be much too painful. I didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to handle the fallout of such an event.

This needed to end now. As soon as he woke up, I was kicking him out like a stray cat. I shifted, hoping to wiggle out from under his arm before he stirred, but as soon as I moved, he pulled me closer. Who knew Harley was a clinger?

“You’re not going anywhere,” he murmured into my hair.

I froze. Shit. Now I was stuck in ‘morning after the night before’ hell. How did other people manage this kind of thing? Was there some kind of manual that advised poor, unfortunate girls like me how to evict unwanted sexual conquests? OK, so ‘unwanted’ was a stretch. Not gonna lie, the way his hard cock was pressing against my ass was giving me ideas, but I was determined not to fall down that rabbit hole. Delicious as it might be.

Harley’s hand snaked around my waist and crept up my ribcage, pushing my cotton vest out of the way. My heart stuttered in my chest. My brain screamed at me to stop this right now, but my body hadn’t got the memo. He reached my breast and squeezed before circling my nipple, teasing it into a hard, aching nub.

“Open your legs a bit, sweetheart,” he purred. My body immediately obliged because it knew what I wanted better than I did. Harley’s thick cock slipped between my thighs, rubbing against the thin cotton of my shorts. I was already soaking wet. Damn that boy for being so fucking extra.

I couldn’t help it. I pushed back against him, a small needy whimper falling from my lips. If only I wasn’t wearing shorts. All I had to do was change the angle of my hips and he’d be inside me. He pinched my nipple as I writhed against him. Each time his cock slid along the seam between my legs, it rubbed over my clit. My shorts were soaked. He had to feel it.

“Harley, we shouldn’t…” One of us needed to be the voice of reason here.

“Fuck, I need to get inside you so bad.”

“Condom,” I reminded him and he quickly reached down and pulled one from his jeans pocket.

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