Page 7 of Unlawful Lies

Is he on to me? Does he know why I’ve had to learn my fourth language when the only real practice I had was a kiss from a gardener?

“I suppose I thought your father kept you on a tighter leash than that,” Edward adds.

“My leash is just as tight as yours. Yes.” I scowl, thinking of all the past experiences when I’ve tried to sneak out of the house to join the girls at my private school on their outings. Clubs, the movies, anything that involves moving my body and hooking a mate, even if it’s just for the night.

Daddy puts the kibosh on everything. My free time, after at-home tutoring for college prep courses, is spent learning his trade alongside Scott as Arden lectures us until my ears bleed.

I’m the only one he tells to stay away from boys, at least, until last week, when he changed his mind.

“I’m sure it hasn't stopped you.” The twinkle returns to Edward’s eyes.

The tension of the moment passes like a cloud across the sun. “Any guard I’ve even attempted to flirt with has been taken away. Moved to that farm in the country where pets go when they die.” My smile is grim. “Heaven forbid the ones who tried to indulge me in a kiss.”

I’ve got to steer the conversation back around, and quickly.

But Edward’s a sneaky one, and I don’t even realize that he’s maneuvered me into a verbal corner until I’m trapped. “A kiss,” he repeats. “I knew you wanted something out of me, drawing me out here.”

I’ve come too far to turn back but I can’t stop the tendril of fear and desire weaving through my vertebrae.

I jolt when his calloused fingertips skim across my cheekbone. “Are you thinking about getting handsy?” I ask. My voice trembles. “Since we’re alone?”

“Seems to me you’ve got me maneuvered, little bunny, but now that it’s time for you to put your money where your mouth is…you’re scared.” His gaze drops down to my mouth.

I jut my chin out obstinate. “I’m not scared of anything. Little fox.”

“Careful. Foxes eat rabbits.” His mouth curves up. “It seems to me maybe I’ve coined you wrong. You are the fox, attempting to make me the rabbit.”

I force myself to steady, to accept the heat flowing through me, which has nothing to do with duty and everything to do with lust, and say, “Why do you think you’re here, Eddie?”

He groans at the nickname, bending down to capture my lips in his next breath. Stealing mine in the process. This kiss?—

I shouldn’t. I don’t want to.

I drop my arms around his shoulders and hold on, nails biting down into hard muscle. I need. Him.

It’s a first kiss, and it feels like we’ve done this a thousand times, making a mockery of every kiss I’ve had before. A shiver races down my spine at the darkness in him, the spicy taste of his tongue with a hint of smoke. There is no emotion in the kiss, and every part of me aches to feel the rest of him.

This strutting peacock of a man.

His hands slap against my ass and grab, pulling me tightly to his front. Those same treacherous hands slide along the curve of my rear, up to my waist, and down to where my thighs meet, the hardness of his erection pressing to my front.

An immediate reaction…for me.

This isn’t a stolen moment where we have to tiptoe around each other. Asking permission for a small bit of intimacy.

We’re nothing but beasts.

Ready to tear each other apart.

I pull away, and he kisses a ragged line along the side of my neck before hoisting me off of my feet. I’m forced to wrap my legs around him to hang on, and he moves back to my mouth to kiss me roughly.

The taste of him on my lips is intoxicating, and he growls possessively before shoving his tongue inside my mouth. He drags his hand through my hair, mussing the strands. I’m on fire and shivering and gasping in a combination of surprise and desire.

“Little fox, do you know how hot you are?” he asks against my skin. “How I’ve wanted to do this since the moment I first saw you?”

The feeling is mutual.

I absorb those words, my head dropping back on my neck and arching into him. Those horribly plump lips trail fire down past my collarbone to the swell of my right breast, then my left.

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