Page 5 of Under the Lies

His touch passion. His stare hungry.

There’s something about being this close, around all these strangers, and still feel like we’re alone as we explore. As we feed the hunger growing in every touch.

I feel myself melting against him, wanting more. Noah sees the desire in my eyes as he pushes the hair off my neck, gracing my skin with a hard, possessive kiss.

“Noah,” I breathe. My body ignites, tension and need building inside.

His name is all it takes for the cord holding his restraint to snap. Noah makes a noise of impatience in the back of his throat as he quickly pulls me off the dance floor and into a cramped, dark closet behind the bar that isn’t made for two people.

“What are we doing in here?”

Noah’s scent invades my senses, evergreens, spiced cloves, and worn leather, as his husky voice whispers in my ear, “Let’s play a game.”

“What kind of game?” I whisper back, excitement racing inside me. One that revolves around removing clothes?

Noah smiles against my skin. “Think of it like strip twenty questions. But for every question you don’t answer I get to take something off you.”

His sharp gaze rolls down my body while his finger traces a line of beadwork on my dress. “Maybe I’ll start by taking this.”

When I came here tonight, I felt numb and dreadful. But now, I can’t imagine leaving. Not while I’m trying to chase this moment of feeling. “What do I get to take?”

One of his knees knocks my legs apart, backing me up until I’m plastered to the wall. “Whatever you want.”

Pants. I want to start with his pants.

No, his shirt. My hands wander to the buttons of his crisp white shirt, feeling the muscles that lay beneath.

Yes, definitely his shirt.

“Sayer,” he practically purrs, soft but seductive.

“Hmm?” My eyes flutter shut while my hands still move up and down his chest.

“What happened when your sister came to visit you?”

My eyes snap back open. Hands freeze.

A different Noah stares back at me.

Gone is the man from the dance floor, even the bar, and in his place is the one people know to fear. Cold and ruthless eyes stare down at me, his words singed with controlled anger.

Did I hear him right? Did he just ask me about…Harlow?

Five days ago, just as I was getting settled in my new apartment after a long day of moving boxes, my sister showed up.

To some having their sibling show up might have been a welcomed surprise but for me, seeing Harlow was worse than being trapped in a room full of poisonous snakes. She’s much more unpredictable.

“Nothing happened.” Unless you count all the ways she verbally bashed me, which I’m not telling him. “She just came over to catch up—whoa! Hey! What’re you doing?”

Noah moves like lightning as he makes a displeasured sound in the back of his throat, hands gliding down my body, over my hips and thighs.

“I warned you,” he growls, grabbing my ankle.

This isn’t like when we were dancing and his hands were on an exploration, now they feel like a restraint, holding me in place.

“Noah…” I warn as he undoes the strap of my heel, slips it off my foot, and tosses it over his shoulder.

It hits the wall with a hard thud.

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