Page 66 of Manhattan Secret
While Margo regales about how hot the bartender is, I choose the wrong time to peek upstairs because a girl with waist-long hair is draped over Lachlan’s shoulder as the gang of them watch something on someone’s phone.
My whole insides start to curdle.
He’s mine, baby girl, get your hands off him.
That boy up there is mine and the only chick allowed to drape over him with her tits pressing into his arm is me.
If not for my last inch of sanity, I might have catapulted the bottle of wine and howled a war cry.
I do something stupid instead.
Seriously, this is why I don’t need to be involved with someone Lachlan’s age. I’m in a bar with my boyfriend in close distance and I can’t go up to give him a kiss or tell him hi.
My reality is eye opening as much as it sucks, so I guess that’s why I tell the girls I’m suddenly feeling a little ill and I leave.
With my feelings hurt and my emotions ready to smack someone in the face.
A body runs into me as I turn the corner to head to the exit. “Oh, Miss Sloan! Hi.” One of my students say, her face beaming red. She looks down at the handful of beer bottles she’s holding, then back to me. “These aren’t for me.”
“Riley, it’s fine, what you do on your own time is your business,” I smile. “Have a good, safe night.” Knowing she’s heading up to Lachlan’s area, my stomach scrunches even more.
The glaring wrongness of my relationship is so apparent I don’t know what to do, other than to go home. For weeks we’ve lived in a kind of kaleidoscope bubble where things only make sense to us. Things are only wonderful when it’s the two of us alone. We are so amazing in my house behind closed doors where we can pretend we are a normal couple.
Avoiding my boyfriend for fear of who might catch me looking at him is as far from normal as it can be and I’m heartsick over my own cowardice to not claim him and show how much I care in public as much as I do in private.
Those times in life when your heart boomerangs directly up into your throat… I feel it a second later when an unknown hand grabs me from behind just as I’m starting down the street back to my car and the body plasters me to the wall.
Nerves skitter down my spine only for a second, before recognition settles in and I breathe a sigh of relief, hitting Lachlan’s chest. “You gave me a damn heart attack.”
“You didn’t even come to say hello, Laney.The fuck.” The pissed off atmosphere burns like steam out of his tall frame as he hunches over me, barricading me against the bricks with his hands resting on the wall behind me. “Little mouse, you need to get out of your comfort zone, it’s too fucking tight in there for both of us.” I can’t help loving his Lachie logic.
We’re off the main strip of bars, but it doesn’t mean someone can’t see him pressing up against me. Lachlan has no fucks to give and that always worries me more than anything.
He’s invincible, or so he thinks.
“You know we can’t, people will talk.”
“The fuck,” he repeats, sharply. Dropping his forehead to mine he takes hold of my face and pierces me with his glowing eyes illuminated by the moon, “this is bullshit, Laney. You see me somewhere, you come to me. I see you somewhere, I come to you. Are you ashamed of us?”
There’s both a softness and edge to his question and when I hesitate, he sighs and steps back. Instantly, I miss his heat.
“You’re no longer my teacher.”
As if that’s the magic fix.
“I was a week ago, Lachlan. How does it look that I’m suddenly draped all over you like those girls?” Damn, my mouth. He narrows his gaze, razor sharp and accusing.
“You saw me and didn’t come up…” it isn’t a question and he isn’t finished. The next words turn me cold with how dark he delivers them. “I could fuck anyone of them, Laney, and I don’t. I want you. And you just wanna fuckinghideme. Maybe keep me as a dirty secret while you publicly date a stiff like Kingston, is that it?”
“Stop. You can’t bully me into doing what you want.”
“Bullying you? Is that what I’m doing?” Softly he asks, dangerously worded.
“You’re putting your wants before what I decided.”
“Yeah, Laney. Whatyoudecided.”
I’ve no idea why he’s grabbed onto Greg Kingston as the enemy all of a sudden, but it’s not the first time his face has twisted up with anger and jealousy. The man means nothing to me, other than he’s my boss and I have to be civil to him. He’s never touched me; he’s never been inappropriate in any way.
