Page 75 of The Obedient Lie
“Payback,” Bastion murmured behind me. His tone wasn’t biting—just… curious. Testing. “For how I spoke to you.”
I blinked. Realization slid in like a cold blade.
They weren’t just teasing me.
They werewatching.Waiting.
This wasn’t about the cocaine.Not really.
This had turned into something else entirely.
A trust test.
The line wasn’t the line anymore—it was a question.
I looked between them slowly. And then down again.
“Why would I get payback?” I said softly, my voice steady even though my chest tightened. “You were right.”
And before I could talk myself out of it, I leaned forward.
Took the line.
No hesitation. No flinch.
Just silence.
Until I felt it—Bastion pressing closer behind me, brushing the softest kiss against the curve of my shoulder.
His lips stayed there for a moment longer than they needed to.
“No,” he said, voice barely above a breath. “I wasn’t.”
The cocaine hadn’t even hit yet.
Buttheyhad.
That heat. That closeness.
That unbearable tension stretching between us like alive wire.
Bastion’s lips stayed near my shoulder, the soft breath of his voice sending shivers down my spine. He hadn’t moved his hand from my waist, thumb brushing lazily against the edge of my rib. Not groping. Just there.
Luca’s hand was still on my knee under the table, slow circles turning slower.Deeper.He moved just slightly closer, his thigh brushing mine now.
“You didn’t even blink,” he murmured, voice low like a secret. “Good girl.”
The praise shouldn’t have done anything to me.
But it did.
It wrecked me.
The way he said it—soft, certain,like I’d done something important. Like they wereproud.
Bastion hummed behind me. “She’s always been a good girl,” he said, and then his hand moved higher, over my stomach from behind. His palm was warm.Grounding.“Even when we didn’t deserve her.”
I didn’t know where to look.
