Page 6 of Unlawful Lies

My eyes go wide at his honesty. “You think you’re going to scare me? Is that it?”

His growl echoes through the garden. “It’s not about scaring you. I think that if I get close to you and feel the heat of your skin, I’m going to do something I might regret.”

He breathes hard, my stomach giving a heated flip at the sound. It clutches when he steps forward and bends, his brow a firm line, to take my hand. It’s the first time we’ve touched since the first meeting. A sharp pull brings me to my feet.

“I’m sure regrets haven’t been enough to stop you in the past. You strike me as the type of man to do whatever he likes when he likes.” I force myself to leer. “Within the limits of your father's reach, of course.”

His fingers tighten on my knuckles, a cool and unbreakable hold. “This isn’t about the past, either,” he replies.

“Then what is it about?” For the family. I take a bold step closer to Edward and make sure he sees the intent written on every line of me. “Because the way I see it, you and I have been playing our positions for long enough that we can be real with each other. There is no one here tugging at our puppet strings and forcing us to dance together.”

I suck on my bottom lip as he grips my hand tighter, holding it near to his lips.

Suspicion lifts at his intentions. I know the look of desire on a man. I’ve seen it before enough to know I can’t mistake his expression for anything else, but what are his motives?

Does he want me as a woman, or is there another layer beneath it?

Does it even matter?

“The strings might be invisible, but they are always there. Trust me when I tell you.” He sounds bitter.

I tug at his hand, but he doesn’t let go. Not yet.

“They’re biting too deeply for you. Aren’t they?” I cock my head to the side as I take him in, from the way he forces himself to be loose and nonchalant. The way he tracks my every minuscule movement. “Those invisible strings. What? Is there anything else you wish to do in this life? A way you want to pave for yourself?”

He clucks his tongue and finally drops my hand. “Those are subjects much too deep for such a lovely day. And for your company.”

“Why is that?” I press. “Because you don’t think I’m able to handle anything deep or dark? Or, heaven forbid, deprived? I’ve seen more than you’re giving me credit for seeing.”

“I think I don’t know you or your motives well enough to allow even an inch of my boundaries to slip. No matter how beautiful you are.”

For some reason, it irks me, which is completely illogical, and I know it. Especially considering he spoke my internal monologue out loud.

There will be no going back from this moment. We are alone in the garden with no one to witness what we say to each other, yet the moment is charged with the poignancy of a thousand eyes on our skin.

Waiting for our next move.

“I understand that the chains bite no matter what else you might want to do. The footprints of our lives have already been laid out long before our birth, it seems, a trajectory set for that that takes us up to the stars.” I reach for him and rest my hands lightly on his shoulders, noting the way he flinches. “There is nothing wrong with feeling the pressure.”

“It’s a different sort of pressure than anything else. But what choice do we have?”

“None,” I admit.

No choice but to endure and to make every pain into a link of our armor. I knew pain. I knew the sting of well-placed words as well as the cut of a fist in the right place, somewhere no one else would see.

I’m sure Edward does, too.

“Not even in our affections,” he continues.

I haven’t stepped away, and neither has he. “Is that your way of saying you have affection for me? Be still my heart. A master of flirtation, I see.”

“Please,” Edward scoffs. “Don’t tell me you’re proficient in that language as well. I’ve heard you speaking English, Italian, and even a bit of German. Adding flirt to the mix is overkill.”

“And you’re pointedly avoiding my previous statement.” I let my hands drop back to my side. “I’d like to circle back around to the fact that you have the hots for me.”

My joke lands flat and dissolves into the over-dry ground, sucked of all its moisture under the heat of a summer sky.

He takes a step back like I’ve burned him, his handsome features twisting in an immediate frown. “Our first conversation, and this is where you go.”

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