Page 91 of King of Deception

“After this, we’re going to look at his house,” he decided. “We’re going to take a nice, long walk around the magnificent palace where that beautiful liar lives. You’re going to talk to me… scream… we can even egg the fence if you want. And if you cry… that’s fine, too.”

“Oh. My. God,” I squeezed my eyelids together and shook my head. “You sound like a shitty holiday movie. You know that?”

“Sometimes we need those.” He shrugged.

“You know what? Okay,” I picked up my sandwich. “We’ll fucking go… just so you stop your weird-ass nagging and go back to being my supportive friend Lexi. Have you seen him, by the way?”

He tilted his head, “Eat your sad little sandwich.”

I narrowed my eyes, “Bite me.”

It was the last thing in the world that I’d wanted to do, but after the fifteenth argument with Alex, I ended up there all the same. Standing in front of the giant metal gates, we could only see an endless winding driveway surrounded by a haven of blooming gardens.

“Gosh, how long do you think he drives to get there?” Alex breathlessly asked.

“I don’t know, ten minutes? I don’t give a shit. Can we go now?”

“You don’t wanna—” he made a circle in the air with his finger.

“Not really. Besides, he can come out of there at any second.”

“You’re right. I didn’t think this through.”

Turning around toward my car, we saw a big black limousine approach.

“Fuck,” I hissed, rushing toward the car. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. Get in!”

“What? It doesn’t have to be him,” Alex stood by the passenger’s door.

“Get in!” I strained.

But it was too late. The limo slowed down by the gates, only a few feet away from us. The driver quickly got out, rushing to open one of the back doors. A man with silver hair got out, looking a lot like an older version of Abel with dark brown eyes.

“Shit. It’s his dad,” I whispered from between my teeth.

“Hello, there,” the man smiled as he took a step closer.

It was only a second before Abel himself got out with a puzzled look on his face. “Ella,” he finally said with a smile.

“It was my idea,” Alex immediately raised both hands. “I wanted to see the place. I work for this lifestyle portal called…”

His voice no longer mattered. In fact, nothing did as I prayed that the earth would open up and swallow me whole.

“Philip Drakos, pleasure.”

“Oh my God, this car… someone at work wrote an entire article about the custom options alone!”

“You, young man, have an interesting taste in shoes.”

“Thank you.”

The conversation in the background was like a distant, muffled soundtrack to the unbreakable eye contact that Abel and I shared. Standing like an idiot in the middle of the driveway, I was mesmerized as my eyes refused to budge from his gorgeous sight, freshly tanned like a Greek God clad in white linen.

“Would you like to come in for a drink?” I heard his father ask Alex.

“Uh—” I tried to interfere, but then one look from Philip’s intimidating eyes fixed me in place with parted lips.

“I—” confused, Alex looked at me and then at Abel. “You know what? Yes. I’d love that.”

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