Page 109 of Under the Lies

He nods, reaching into his back pocket. He slides a piece of paper across the bar and Reeve snatches it up. I careen my neck to read what it says, but the ass has it tilted just enough for me not to see.

Looking unhappy, he passes it to Noah. “You’re a little late on inviting me to your lover’s rendezvous.”

“And you’re a lot late letting us know about it,” Noah snarls, his eyes looking up from the paper.

Noah hands me the paper, but I don’t need to read it to know what it says. Rand met up with my sister. Rand saw my sister. My sister is near. Or at least, she was. And we’re too late.

I look at Noah to see his face cold, jaw hard and his eyes blazing with a thousand fires as he stares down Rand. “Why contact us at all, then, Rand?” He leans across the bar and pulls the other man in close by the back of his neck. “Wanted to rub it in my face?”

Despite the rage on Noah’s face and the grip on his neck, Rand smiles. Cool and indifferent. “She wanted me to give you a message.”

Noah lets go of Rand and pushes him away.

Rand stumbles a few steps and his keen eyes latch onto me. I glare at him. His stare makes me uncomfortable, holding secrets I can’t touch, but I’m not going to look away. I won’t cower under this stranger’s scrutiny. He’s heard stories about me from my sister. He expects me to shake and crumble. I’ve always been the scared little rabbit in the eyes of my sister.

But this rabbit has learned to grow a pair of horns and satisfaction fills me as I see the surprise on his face when I raise my middle finger and flip him off.

“Yo.” Reeve snaps his fingers in Rand’s face. “The message, fuck boy.”

Annoyed, Rand looks to Noah. He smiles. “She’s going to win.”

Noah slams the door at the top of the stairs. It rattles on its hinges, giving away just how angry he is. I give him a wide birth as we walk back down the hall, Reeve decided to go find the new friend he made, leaving me alone with Noah and his temper. It pulses off him like a radiator.

When we were younger, he used to scare me like this. When he’d storm the hall of our prep school with his lacrosse stick in hand and blood on his knuckles. Now, the man has control over the anger the boy did not. He internalizes it.

I can practically see the wheels churning behind his eyes. He’s thinking, plotting.

As a man who always needs to be the smartest person in the room, needs to be several steps ahead of all his opponents, he’s internalizing too much. Overthinking to the point of flaws.

And he’s not going to pull himself out of it alone.

As we’re walking out of the hall and through the library, I grab his arm and pull him between the stacks. His eyes blaze bright and nostrils flare as I grab his face. Forcing him to look at me.

“Calm down,” I order. My voice is calm, soothing.

It doesn’t work. Noah’s not even focused on my face. He’s not focused on anything except his thoughts.

“Noah,” I try again, but he doesn’t react. Doesn’t blink.

He’s shaking under my palms. Vibrating with anger. My sister was here. Under his nose and he didn’t know. None of us did.

Not knowing what else to do, I do the one thing that seems to always work in the movies.

I kiss him. Up on my toes, lips pressed to firm lips.

Nothing. No reaction.

It’s like having my lips against a brick wall, rough and cold. Unresponsive.

Looks like the movies have this wrong—

Noah makes a noise in the back of his throat, caught somewhere between a moan and a growl, that vibrates against my lips. From my lips down to my toes, that’s where I feel it. Everywhere.

And he’s kissing me back. Taking the helm and pushing me against the shelves. Pinning me there with his hands, his hips. His lips.

All that aggression, frustration is put into his kiss. Bruising his lips against mine. His fingers bite into my waist, pulling me closer.

Closer and closer until there’s no space between us.

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