Page 13 of Deceit

I got the vibes a little bit yesterday, but I wasn’t sure if I was making it up in my head or not. Now I know, without a doubt, I was absolutely not making it up and I don’t even want to question it. So, I take a step closer to him, brushing my chest against his in a way that makes him skip a breath, before he looks down at me. His eyes flick over his shoulder as if he were checking to make sure no one was coming, before he turns back to face me.

“Me,” I smile.

“Yeah? You, Miss…”

He trails off, waiting for me to fill in my last name no doubt.

“Parris,” I fill in.

His teasing smirk drops in a moment and his eyes widening as he takes a quick step away from me, like my touch has burned him. It takes him a moment to seemingly compose himself, before he straightens his posture and slips on a mask of indifference.

“Your name is Skyla Parris?”

I frown at his lightning quick change of character as I nod.

“Yes, is something wrong with that?”

He shakes his head once.

“No, I just didn’t realize. You’re engaged to Asher Putnam.”

I roll my eyes at the reminder.

“Does everyone on this campus know that?”

“Yes,” he answers quickly, so quickly it makes me take a second look at him. Really? Why on earth would it be everyone’s business? I’ve only been here two days. Unless arranged marriages are extremely common around here, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were. Or maybe this arrangement has been set in stone for a lot longer than I’m thinking. That, I really wouldn’t be surprised about.

“Well, if I’m honest, I don’t have much interest in marrying him. He’s an ass and has nothing but disdain for me. I don’t know why my father thought we would ever work out.”

“Working out doesn’t matter, committing to your arrangement is all anyone will care about,” Ronan says.

“Well, what if I’m unhappy? What if it would make me unhappy to marry him? I humored my father out of respect, but I can’t marry a man that can hardly stand the sight of me.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he says briskly.

“It does to me,” I counter.

Ronan looks away for a moment before he speaks, keeping his eyes fixated on the wall as he does.

“Happiness is just a fairy tale dream. Even if you think you have it, think you can taste it, you’ll wake up soon enough and it will fade from your mind, until you can’t remember it at all.”

There is something so strong in his words, so truthful. Like he knows this pain firsthand. It breaks my heart. First, to hear someone be so cynical about something as simple as happiness. Second, to be so obviously crushed under the heel of life’s boot that you’ve accepted a future devoid of happiness.

“I hope not,” I say softly.

He swings his gaze back to me, a disbelieving look in his eye.

“You hope not?”

I nod. “In the lack of happiness or light, or anything relatively good, there is always hope. It’s always sitting there, idly by, ready for you to take it. You just have to be brave enough to.”

Ronan doesn’t say anything, and honestly, I don’t know what else there is to say. So with a small shrug, I walk past him, grabbing my things and head back to my dorm before the sun comes up.

Chapter Five

Asher

I’m sleeping, or at least trying to, but some annoying fuck keeps pounding on the door. Finally, having enough of it I drag myself out of bed, hopping over the passed out girl beside me before I open the door. I expect it to be Liam, he’s about the only obnoxious fucker out there that would have the balls to bang on my door so early in the morning.

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