Page 16 of Tell Me Lies

Actually, I wasn’t sure I was ever really in love with Lennox Dietrich, but that was bygones, now.

“Is that so?” He’d surveyed me with the same cold air he offered me daily for the past weeks as we drifted around each other. Whatever magnetic lust drew us together had worn thin with a difference of life choices.

Like belief in minority groups, and quality of life for lower socio-economic demographic. I didn’t care how hot a guy was or how good in bed. His aloof, I’m too rich to care attitude broke me at a heart level. That wound would never recover.

“I’m sorry,” I said helplessly, the guilt intensifying that I should feel something more but didn’t. “I’m not being cruel. We aren’t alike anymore. But we had fun, didn’t we?” For a time? Any time? My voice rose at the end in my panic.

“Did we?” he asked softly. “Or maybe you were just a waste of my time after all.”

I walked away without another word after that, and saw him on social media not two hours later with a sorority girl flashing her not-so-natural tits and the new jewelry he bought her, practically clawing at his clothes as they locked lips. Hell, he even tagged me in that one just to dig his poisonous point a little deeper. Asshole.

I held my head up for a full minute, making my heart rejoice in my freedom … before I bawled my eyes out on the boy I thought I might one day marry, drank myself stupid, and performed a karaoke duet with the house TV all on my lonesome.

Hence how the picture came to be. The only difference between ex-Lennox’s new sidepiece and me was that while we both had our tits out—mine were most definitely perkier—she got the bling. And the boy.

Even in my hungover state I didn’t want either of those, though I’d keep the boobs.

And because I dared walk away from his twin I earned an extra spotlight in Maxom Deitrich’s attention. With him, no matter how small the crime or the imagined slight, there was always comeuppance.

Which boiled down to the whole reason he hated me in the first place—because I chose Lennox McDickface Deitrich instead of the “right” twin for me.

Maxom made it clear the moment he found me wandering around their mansion two years ago at dawn looking for the coffeemaker. A look, a glare that I should be there … that I shouldn’t be with his brother. Why that mattered to him, I still had no idea because Maxom liked to keep the workings of his black heart to himself.

Our vendetta grew, and Maxom Deitrich had no limits to his fury. Or his ego.

A flier fluttered around my ankles. I pried the paper from my blue leather boots that matched my dark jeans I wiggled into earlier, and flipped it over. I stared back at myself, my hair wild, my face flushed.

Damn good thing those pjs make my nip slip look sexy as hell.

A few heads began to turn, picking me out as the lone person walking at a near-run through the wandering, stalled crowd.

Maxom might think he had me by the short and curlies, but I was more than ready to take my pound of flesh from his perfectly tight ass.

Right now.

Except I didn’t have to wait. Normally, karma left me hanging a good month or two, letting my head cool, but for a shitty Monday morning it delivered right on time.

Maxom stood in the very center of the courtyard, posing beside the fountain that. for the first time in weeks after orientation, didn’t run like a SodaStream with detergent powder.

Black jeans enhanced his already six feet plus height, a black button-down shirt open to the third button, cuffs rolled up to complete the luxurious, apathetic look. Hair as black as mine made a direct contrast to his twin’s pale mop swept to one side, the epitome of the languishing private schoolboy.

College life suited the power-hungry twin, and he relished in it. I hoped one day he’d step into the real world and get a shock, and that I’d be there to see it. Still, his blue eyes lit as I made my choice to face off with him in public.

If I’d been any other girl I might have drooled over those forearms and the musculature that stretched his shirt tight across his back. His bulk wasn’t big enough to be bulging, just a hint of dangerous strength there, enough to enhance his overabundant supply of sex appeal.

Yes, I might have drooled, if I were any other girl.

And there were plenty of those slobbering in the shade he threw as he watched me stalk toward him, his lips half-cocked in a familiar smirk. One of the girls placed a hand on his arm, fawning at his side, but he shrugged her off without looking down to see who dared touch him.

Those opal blue eyes darkened, a flash of fire belying his cool. Maxom Deitrich was seething, and in a crowd of over a hundred students only I could see it. Or maybe he let me in.

“Enjoying the start of the new week?” His lips curled in a cruel smile. Somewhat horrifyingly, he looked hotter that way.

Jesus, I’m so fucking broken. Apparently breaking up with his brother left me open to the cold rage from the twin in front of me. And still, he looked far too sexy for my liking. Calm yer tits, ovaries.

My Aussie housemate’s crass lingo was rubbing off on me. I resisted the urge to facepalm. Barely.

“Take them down.” I glared, daring him to defy my need to rip him to shreds.

---