Page 29 of The Obedient Lie
I paused, blood cooling as fast as it had boiled.
Reid raised a brow.
Kingston tilted his head, that Crow smirk sliding slow across his mouth.
“Nice speech,” he said lazily. “You always this loyal to people who hate you?”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. Because I wasn’t sure what scared me more. That they’d heard me defending their family.
Or that I’d meant every word. It was nice to just be hated and knew where I stood for once.
Chapter Eleven
LUCA
She had her headphones in again.
Some soft, lo-fi bullshit that let her disappear into herself while the rest of us tried to pretend the air in this room hadn’t thickened likesmoke.
Bastion was on the couch, pretending to read.
I was near the window, nursing a glass of water that had been empty for twenty minutes.
Andshe… was folding lingerie.
Like it wasnormal.
Like she wasn’t sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of her bed, surrounded by tissue paper, silk ribbons, and the faint scent of steam-cleaned satin.
A courier had dropped the box off twenty minutes ago.
She’d unwrapped it with casual excitement, humming to herself, completelyunawareof the destruction she was unleashing.
The first thing she pulled out waswhite.
Lace. Delicate. Barely anything to it.
I glanced up once.
That was amistake.
She held it up to inspect it — her brows drawn in focus, lips parted slightly — then set it gently on the pile beside her.
The next item wasworse.
A pale blush slip, trimmed in sheer lace, with thin straps and a ribbon at the bust.
She ran her fingers over it like it wasfragile.
Like it neededcare.
I could already see it on her.
Could see the way it would cling to her waist, the way it would dip across her chest.
Could see itsliding off her shoulder in the dark.
And she hadno ideawe were watching her.
