Page 55 of Veil of Lies

Most students stared at me in silence. Some whispered, and a few, like Rowena and Cassie, openly discussed my family’s shameful fall from grace as if I was invisible. I held my head up high and took comfort from Harley’s hand in mine, but the barbs still sank in, leaving festering wounds I knew would take a long time to heal.

In one sense, it was a relief to reach Harley’s apartment, but I was still nervous about seeing Brax. I couldn’t bear witnessing the disgust in his eyes, although it seemed inevitable. There was no way he could look past what my father had done.

Harley might say otherwise, but I knew differently.

Every friend I’d had disappeared as soon as Dad’s arrest went public. Even the girls I’d known since kindergarten.

“I’ll put your stuff in my room,” Harley told me as I looked around the apartment. Although I’d been here once before, when I brought drunk Brax back, I hadn’t paid much attention.

It was much larger than my apartment, with a spacious living area dominated by a large sectional sofa and a massive flat-screen TV. There was a games console plugged in and several controllers, a surround sound system, and other gadgets. It had a definite college-boy vibe. The only things missing were piles of empty bottles, pizza boxes, and girls’ underwear.

I wrinkled my nose at the thought of how many salacious acts had taken place on that innocent-looking sectional. God only knew the horrors a black light would reveal. But I wasn’t going there. Harley’s invite was likely only temporary, until all the drama and gossip died down. Once it did, I could return to my little apartment and life would go on.

“Have you eaten?” Harley asked when I reappeared. I was still standing in the same spot as when he left me, and his eyes softened. “You can make yourself at home,” he reassured me. “Brax and Quinn have gone to the gym.”

Some of the tension evaporated, knowing they weren’t going to appear in the next five minutes, but still. It wasn’t as if I could put off the inevitable showdown forever.

“No, and it’s fine. I’m not hungry.” I had barely eaten anything all day but my stomach was so tied up in knots, I wasn’t sure I could get anything down even if I tried.

“Stella, you should eat—”

“Harley, just stop!” I knew I was being an ungrateful bitch but I was unable to stop the vitriol from spewing out. “I don’t need mollycoddling. If I say I’m not hungry, I’m not fucking hungry.” Harley may have a savior complex, but I was not about to become his next project. “I’m grateful for your help, you have no idea how grateful, but I’m not used to being taken care of.” A brief flash of hurt flickered in his expression before it hardened into something that looked a lot like determination.

“I’m not trying to mollycoddle, I am trying to help you, which is a very different thing.” He walked over and yanked me close. The scent of him enveloped me and my thoughts scattered, like they always did when we were this close to each other. I swear to God, someone ought to bottle this boy’s sexual pheromones. Ugly dudes everywhere would have no more problems getting laid.

“Beyond your assistance in persuading the dean to let me stay, which I am grateful for, I don’t need any additional help or to be saved.” This was not what he wanted to hear, because, hello, savior complex, but it needed saying anyway. “I just need a friend, OK?”

He searched my face for any hint of a lie and found none.

“Does making you food count as help?” His thumb rubbed a light circle on my hip and I tried not to preen under his touch. I was like a stray cat, starved of attention, desperate for human touch.

“I guess not.” It wasn’t like I was a great cook. My limit was beans on toast, and even that was a stretch.

“I’m not an amazing cook, nothing like Quinn, but I can do all the basics. And I’m a dab hand at ordering pizza.”

“Quinn can cook?”

“Is that what you took from my heartfelt declaration?”

His lip curled up in a half smile and I leaned in a bit, noting the slight uptick in his breathing. I wasn’t the only one affected by our close proximity.

“No, I heard the bit about pizza. So good to know we won’t starve on your watch.”

He full on laughed out loud. “No, no-one starves in this apartment. Quinn likes to feed us up. It’s his love language.”

“What’s my love language?”

I half turned. Quinn stood there, shirtless, wearing nothing but a pair of basketball shorts. Be still my beating heart. Ink snaked down from his shoulder, cutting across his chest in a complex design of mythical monsters and Celtic symbols. I itched to look closer, but my gaze snagged on his pierced nipple.

My tongue flicked out to moisten my lips as I wondered whether it hurt to stick something sharp through a sensitive part of his anatomy. Did he have any other piercings? Ugh. Down girl.

“Food, specifically cooking for those you love.”

Quinn laughed. “If that was the case, I’d not bother cooking for you, asshole.”

“How rude, you know you love me.”

“Pfft, definitely not, dude. You’re way too annoying and lacking all the body parts I like.”

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