Page 121 of The Obedient Lie
I pulled back.
That night, I walked into the dorm with my heart in my throat. Bastion was sprawled on the couch, and Luca had his laptop open at the table, tapping something in. They both looked up.
I didn’t sit beside either of them.
I dropped into the armchair instead, curling my legs under me, pretending I was too tired to talk. Too tired to flirt. Too tired to kiss.
And I kept doing it.
Day after day.
I started leaving earlier for class, taking new routes so I wouldn’t run into them in the hall. I skipped breakfast when they were around. Changed my gym time. Picked new studyspots. I even stopped crashing into Luca’s lap during dorm movie nights or lingering beside Bastion after practice.
Because I couldn’t be the reason something broke between them.
Not them.
Notthosetwo.
So I kept my distance, hoping they’d notice.
Hoping I wouldn’t have to say it out loud.
I was just getting a glass of water. That was all.
But I felt him behind me before I saw him—like a shift in gravity. Like the temperature in the room dropped and surged at the same time.
Bastion stepped into the kitchen like heownedit. Like heownedme.
No warning. No sound. Just him.
I didn’t look up at first. Didn’t want to see, the way he’d be looking at me.
But I felt it anyway. The heat. The tension. That quiet, brutalpull.
“Busy night?” he asked, voice lower than usual. Controlled.
I nodded quickly, eyes on the glass. “Just helping Kingston study.”
He didn’t respond. Not at first.
Then came the shift. Thesnapunder the surface.
“You do that a lot now.”
I blinked.
“Study out here,” his voice was low, “with mycousins.”
I looked up. He was already moving—close enough now that I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe.
Then his hand reached out, took the glass from mine, and set it behind me on the counter. Slowly. Quietly.
His eyes never left mine.
“Nine days,” he muttered, like the words were burning his mouth. “Nine long, fucking days since I’ve had a taste of what’smine.”
And before I could move, before I could respond—his hands were on my face, and I waspressedagainst the bench.
