Page 7 of Lies Like Love

I grin at the nerves lacing her question. “You’d have to back it first, of course.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

I take a step toward her, and it forces her to tip her chin up further to look at me, elongating her slim neck.

Daring to lift a finger, I graze her ear, trailing it down her smooth skin until my fingers pause on her pulse at the base of her throat. Her little heart races with every hint of fear she’s so good at hiding on the outside.

“Let me pierce you with it and you can sell it here all you want.”

“You want to pierce me?”

The idea of driving a needle through her perfect flesh and making her flinch, making her exhale at the pain, making her bleed for me—it probably shouldn’t entice me as much as it does.

She might not be my stepsister anymore, but it doesn’t mean she’s not off limits.

“You want me to back your product, seems only fair.” I take a step back because if I don’t create some distance this will all go downhill.

“Fine.” She reaches up and grazes the top of her ear with her fingertips like she’s already deciding what she’ll let me do.

“Nah.” I shake my head. “You want to sell in a shop that caters to celebrities, you’re going to have to take a bigger risk than getting your ears pierced like a teenager.”

Her eyes widen. “What then?”

I drag my teeth over my lower lip and drop my gaze to her chest, knowing it’s enough to scare her away. She might think I’m actually considering this. But I’m not.

I’m going to make sure she walks out the door to this shop and never comes back for both our sakes.

Her hands fly up to her perfect tits, and she takes a step backward, backing herself against the wall. “You mean?”

I shrug, dropping my gaze further. “Unless you were interested in getting creative a little lower.”

The sound that escapes Fel’s chest is barely human. She’s revolted. I should probably be as well, but the idea of her legs spread while I drive metal into her is borderline exhilarating.

Fel shakes her head, and I watch disgust paint her face. “You might look different, but you haven’t changed one bit.”

Wrong.

Not that I correct her.

I’ve avoided her for a decade for the sole purpose of allowing her to continue to portray me as her villain because she needed him, even if she refuses to acknowledge it.

“Goodbye, Jude.” She shakes her head, her face filling with misplaced disappointment. “See you in another eleven years.”

“If you’re lucky.” I wink, and she frowns as she turns and walks away.

I watch her disappear out the front door, leaving a cloud of her strawberry scent in the air like a ghost lingering to haunt my senses.

Her friend wraps an arm around her, and they both look through the window a final time at whatever they’re saying. Fel’s eyes narrow with the kind of fury that will paint the back of my eyelids for years to come.

Not that I blame her.

Fel hates me because I broke our families—because her mother slit her wrists after what I did, and I walked away, seemingly unscathed.

And I hope the rage she harbors rocks her to sleep at night.

I wasn’t her hero for a reason. And she can lie to herself all she wants—it was for the best.

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