Page 104 of Treacherous

God, I was a very sad girl…

"So what did you want to talk about?" I asked him as I watched him flick cigarette ash out his window. "You said there was…"

"Ellie's back," Noah husked before exhaling a cloud of smoke. Turning his face, he looked directly into my eyes and sighed. "Which means George is on route."

My heart sank.

Everything had been so perfect these past few weeks and Noah's so called family returning would ruin it.

"Ellie's back. Yay," I muttered sarcastically. "I was missing our little sparring sessions."

"Can you do me a favor and try not to antagonize her?" he muttered in an irritated tone and his irritation seemed to set off mine.

"No, actually I can't," I shot back petulantly. "She's a bitch and I happen to be deathly allergic to her particular breed."

Noah snorted and I looked over at him and smirked. His eyes darkened as he stared intently at me.

This lunch could be salvaged yet…

"You know, you're turning me into a rule-breaker," I purred. A seedy image of the two of us sparked to life in my vivid imagination and I blushed. "I'm still not supposed to have contact with you – ofanykind."

"Well, it's lucky your uncle doesn’t know about the elevator then isn’t it," Noah crooned as he flicked his cigarette butt out the window and dragged me across the console so that I was straddling his hips. "Or our nightly get-togethers… He might try to keep you away from me until your twenty-first birthday."

"He might," I agreed, wrapping my arms around his neck.

"Thorn, you know what George returning means for me, right?" Noah whispered and my heart shriveled inside in my chest. "You know what I'll have to do for him…for her?"

I nodded slowly.

I knew what it meant. Noah would have to fight again and it put the fear of god inside of me…

"I don’t have a choice, Teagan," Noah added, noticing my sudden deflation. "You know that."

"I hate this," I told him, burying my face in his neck. I knew Noah didn’t have a choice, but that didn’t mean I had to be okay with George Dennis using him as a human punching bag. "I hatehim."

"Me too, baby," Noah coaxed, pressing a kiss to my collarbone and I didn’t bother correcting him. "That's why I need you to not argue with Ellie." He let out a heavy sigh as he trailed his lips up my neck. "We don’t need to draw unwanted attention to…"

The driver's door flew open, causing Noah to trail off and me to yelp in surprise.

"So it's true?" Ellie sneered, holding the car door open, wrecking our private moment and boiling the blood in my veins. "You'rewithher now?" She looked at me straddling Noah and shook her head in disgust. "You idiot."

"Walk away, Ellie," Noah shot back in a tight tone of voice. "Now."

"You should take your own advice," Ellie hissed. "And walk away – fromher."

"What the hell is your deal?" I snapped. Enough was enough and I'd taken all I could from Noah's skanky sister.

"Stay out of it, Thorn, I'm handling this…" Noah began to say but I shut him up with one look.

He had my hips clenched so tightly I had to physically remove his hands from my waist so I could climb off his lap and out of the car.

"No," I warned him in an even tone as I stood outside his car. "I may be your girlfriend now but I still have a mind of my own, soIwill speak for myself, thank you very much."

Noah looked up at me with reluctant admiration shining in his dark eyes before nodding his head slightly.

"Well isn’t this a Kodak moment, L?" A familiar voice laughed. "Noah's breaking all of his rules these days." Reese walked over and stood beside Ellie glaring daggers at me.

"You’re telling me," Ellie replied coldly.

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