Page 15 of Sweet Temptation

His lips tensed into a firm line as he glanced away. I guessed that was all the answer I was going to get.

“Is it really so bad my father is Matthew LaFleur? Can’t you get your grandfather to reconsider?” I asked.

“Yes. It’s that bad.” He sounded completely defeated. “And no, I can’t do that.”

“I can’t try to fix things if I don’t know the problem...”

“It doesn’t matter what happened. There’s no fixing things.” His reply was abrupt. He seemed to be pulling further away now, and a look of hopelessness had fallen over him. The desire and longing I’d thought we’d shared was nowhere to be seen. He’d finally found his restraint.

“Right.” I took another step back. “Then you won’t do anything to make this work, will you?”

"Isobel...”

I shook my head. He clearly didn’t want to talk about why his family despised my father so much, but he couldn’t just expect me to accept that. To just let it lie when he continued to tease me with his presence. I certainly wasn’t going to give him a free pass to keep that up by agreeing to a secret relationship.

“Just stop messing with me, and leave me alone, Noah.”

I took off running again, and this time he didn’t come after me. I could feel his eyes on me, but I didn’t look back. I wasn’t sure what game Noah was trying to play, but I wanted no part of it.

There was still so much pain in my heart from our breakup, but the more I saw Noah, the angrier I was becoming. Every time he got close to me, he played with my emotions, reminding me how much I wanted him but also how what we had was gone forever. And now he had offered to have a relationship with me in secret. He wanted me enough to keep seeing me on the side but not enough to stand up to his grandfather and fight for me.

I was starting to prefer the anger over the sadness. Sadness only made me feel helpless, but my anger gave me a sense of power. It urged me to keep moving. To run harder and faster and put Noah so far behind me he became nothing more than a distant memory.

CHAPTERFIVE

Anna was gone by the time I returned to my room, but Cress was still in bed lightly snoring. She was absolutely terrible at getting up in the mornings. I knew if I didn’t try to wake her there was a chance she’d snooze her alarm past breakfast, so I went over and gave her a nudge.

“Cress,” I whispered, gently shaking her arm. “You have to get up.”

“No,” she groaned into her pillow. She was generally a pretty positive person, but only after her morning coffee.

“We’ve got to go to breakfast soon,” I said. “And I need to jump in the shower.”

“But it’s so warm and cozy in here.” Her voice was muffled by her pillow. “Please tell me it’s hot outside.”

“It’s hot outside.”

“Really?” She sounded surprised, and one of her eyes finally opened to glance up at me.

“No, not really.”

Her eye scrunched shut again. “You’re supposed to lie about the weather until I’m out of bed.”

“I’ll remember for next time.”

She groaned but finally started to push herself upright.

Happy to see she seemed awake, I made my way into the bathroom and jumped in the shower. I was sweaty and gross from my run, and I worried about the fact Noah had just been so close to me when I looked like this. I threw my head under the cascading water and ran my hands through my hair trying to wash away any further thoughts of him.

Again, I’d failed to get any explanation out of him. I wasn’t sure if understanding the feud between our families would change anything, but I felt like I had a right to some answers. My life had been upended. My heart broken. Telling me the reason why seemed the least Noah could do.

When I emerged from the bathroom, Cress was thankfully still awake.

“Something came for you while you were in the shower,” she said, nodding at my bed.

I looked where she was indicating and found a small package waiting there for me. “What is it?”

“Beats me.” She shrugged and walked past me into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

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