Page 68 of Lies Like Love

I shrug, clamping my mouth shut. If I keep talking all I’ll do is throw more sand over my own grave.

“Good.” He takes another step, gripping my chin to tilt my face up to him. “You pissed me off last night, that’s on you.”

“On me? You—” I try to pull away because he’s turning this around on me, and the audacity burns as hot in my stomach as it does behind my eyes.

But he forces me a step backward before I can and pins me to the wall beside the front door. The full force of his body presses against mine, every flush inch of him hot as his face hovers an inch from my own.

I’m not sure who’s more desperate as we fight for the air between us.

“Shut up, Red. I heard you. Now it’s my turn to fucking talk.”

I tug my chin to the side, and he releases his grip on it, but he doesn’t step back. He doesn’t let me go. He holds me against the wall and clouds my judgment with the scent of his cologne.

Body heat that could set my life on fire if I let it.

“Don’t lie to me and say you weren’t trying to piss me off last night. You were, and that’s fine.” His thumb grazes along my neck, up and down the center of my throat like he’s mesmerized by every heavy breath. “You can play coy and pretend you don’t push my buttons on purpose, but we both know you do. You like seeing how far I’m willing to go for you. And trust me when I say this Fel—I will take itall the wayif you force my hand. Which leads to our truth.”

I dare face him again. “What truth?”

“It pisses you off that I play dirty.” He smirks, digging his hips against me harder with his words and forcing my legs slightly apart. “But you like it. Youwantit. You’re not the good girl they think you are.”

“Then what am I?”

I press my lips together and hope it’s enough to stop me from wishing he’d just lean in. The closeness, the heat. I spent years convincing myself I wanted him because he was off limits, but with his body pressed to mine, I feel safe when I shouldn’t—needy and desperate. And it isn’t because he’s forbidden. It’s because he sees through the perfect girl they raised, straight to the mess he makes me.

“You’re bad.” It’s like he’s reading my mind as he taps his thumb on my lip. “Just. Like. Me.”

There’s no denying it as he trails his finger over my lip, my cheek, down the center of my throat. As he feeds on my body’s reaction, while I ignite at his touch. His hands, the only ones my body wakes for.

Who we were years ago feels so far away and so close as his rough palm grazes over my bare skin. And his eyes—his dark soul. One look, and I’m certain I’ve never really escaped him.

Moving his fingers from my throat to my chest, to my stomach, he grazes the exposed skin. His eyes don’t leave my parted lips as he rakes his fingers back and forth across it, reading every quick breath I can’t hold in. His nails skate over my belly button and my entire body shivers.

It doesn’t matter that he’s never touched me like this before, he plays me like an instrument with perfect precision.

“I still hate you for what you did.” I’m not sure why I say it, but I need him to know that even if my body responds to him like this, it doesn’t erase our past.

“I know.”

No,I’m sorry. Because like he said, he wouldn’t mean it.

We stare into each other’s eyes as he touches me, and he feels so good; I’m the strike of a match away from fully incinerating.

“I’ll always protect you, Fel.” Jude draws his hand around my side and up my back, lacing it through the hair at the nape of my neck and tipping my face up. “Whether you like the outcome of it or not. I’ll always do what needs to be done for you.”

“Why?”

Fire builds behind my eyes, and I’m not sure if it’s because of emotions breaking free or his grip on my hair. I can’t escape the fact that I’m bursting at every seam as my flesh burns and cracks.

“Because you’re worth protecting.”

Because I was his stepsister? Because we once were friends? Or more?

All questions on the tip of my tongue, but I’m not brave enough to ask them.

“You should go,” I whisper, hearing myself slipping with each word and hoping he doesn’t think I actually mean it. Because yes,he should gofor so many reasons, but it doesn’t erase why he shouldn’t.

“Do you want me to?” A challenge. Calling me out for the heart beating for him in my chest.

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