Page 6 of Under the Lies

As it lands, Noah looks up at me with wicked eyes. “Now. Let’s try that again.”

He grabs my other ankle, looking up at me beneath his thick, dark lashes that frame those hypnotizing blue eyes. “What did your sister want?”

His grip on my ankle is a shackle I want to be freed from.

I could kick him in the face. A spiked heel to the nose wouldn’t feel good.

“Don’t even think about it,” he warns, reading the intent on my face.

“You don’t know what I’m thinking.”

“Oh, I think I do.” His chuckle is far from humorous. “If you try to hurt me, you’ll find out what an unforgiving man I can be.”

“I think you’re all talk.” I know he’s not all talk. One time in prep school I saw him beat a kid to the point of hospitalization with only a lacrosse stick.

His lips curl. “That right?”

I want to yank my challenging words back, but another part wants to push even more. So I do.

“You act all big and bad, but what do you really do? I bet you sit behind your desk all day—”

While I ramble and have him distracted, I use the foot Noah is holding and dig the heel of my shoe into his shoulder.

He hisses in pain, but doesn’t loosen his grip. “Mistake.”

Yeah, my rampant heartbeat is agreeing with that.

Noah twists my foot and spins me around so my face is to the wall.

Quickly, he yanks off the shoe before towering over me. “You don’t want to push me, Baby Brooks. When I bite, I’m not gentle.”

His words cause a flurry of warring emotions to erupt inside me, my body running both hot and cold as the door to the closet opens.

“Boss.” The bartender from earlier looks between us with some sort of humor. “You have visitors.”

Noah stiffens at my backside, mumbling something I don’t catch. He pulls away but not before pointing two fingers at me. “Don’t think we’re done here, Baby Brooks. You’ll be seeing me again.”

My mouth feels too dry as I watch him retrieve my shoes before walking out of the room, leaving me alone. And barefoot.

I don’t know how long I stay in the closet.

All I know is by the time Brin and I get back to my apartment, I can still feel Noah’s body against mine.

What happened when your sister came to visit you?

Noah’s question follows me into the next day.

As I ate my sad breakfast of plain toast since I forgot to pick up butter when I did my first and only grocery run.

As I walked across campus to each of my classes.

As the professors went over their syllabus.

I should’ve been focusing on that, this is my last semester of my Master’s in Art Conservation before I start my internship in the fall, but my professors were the last thing on my mind.

I tried and tried to kick the blue-eyed devil out of my head, to forget the husky and enticing sound of his voice. Tried and failed every time.

His words are a phantom I can’t escape.

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