Page 53 of Our Little Cliche
Chapter Twenty-Four
CYRUS
Fuck.
Chapter Twenty-Five
HOLLY
“I’ll ah…go check… the… the things,” I mutter out a bunch of nonsense, fleeing back to the kitchen so the tension doesn’t charge again.This is a disaster.I feel like the more I try to stop temptation, the more the energy between us crackles with anticipation.
I should have stayed in my room.
I should have kept the towel to myself.
I should have?—
“You left without the most important part,” he places the bottle of red wine onto the marble white bench top.
“I— I smelt something burning,” I lie with my back turned to him, peeling the potatoes.
“Oh, is the oven too high?”
“No. No, don’t worry, it’s all good.”
“Alright. Are you okay to take over? I’ll just go freshen up for the night.”
“Sure. I’ve done this a million times.”
“Burn things?”
“What?”Oh right, I lied. Nothing isactuallyburning. “Oh. Funny.” I hear him turn on his feet, but I wait for thesound of footsteps to disappear before putting music on in the background.I Knew You Were Troubleis the first song that plays.Yeah, Tay Tay you got that right—he is trouble.
My stomach churns in nerves. Why am I so all over the place?I need a chill pill or something.“This just won’t do. I need some of that wine.” I down the first three gulps hoping that whatever I’m feeling will kindly bugger off, and top up the glass, taking it with me to the living room to find a book to bore myself waiting for Cyrus to return.
I see a small glass display cabinet with some indie published books on it, all signed to Cyrus. Author friends of his, perhaps. Every single one of the covers are black—they’re all dark romance. I pick one that has a skeleton and blood dripping down it. The writing is red and distorted, titledMine To Hunt.Wow, look at the amount of trigger warnings… they take up two pages.
I flop myself on the sofa, flicking to a random page and start reading. It takes a hot minute, but I eventually work out that who I assume to be the main female, or love interest, I guess, seems to be running—through a forest, I think. The suspense reels me in straight away. Two males are stampeding behind her,wait, then a third? One of the men snatches her by the wrist and she’s on the ground in seconds. Circled by the guys like a bunch of vultures. What happens next is something I don’t expect.
Once they finish tearing her clothes off, the men discover that she’s wet.
And they are rock hard.
Hold the phone, are they going to… my cheeks flush in an instant. Before getting the chance to keep reading I hear Cyrus’s bare feet shuffling down the corridor, and mindlessly fidget in my seat.
Shit.
Am I going to get in trouble for touching these books? I jolt up, stepping a length before realizing I won’t have enough time to run and put it back now.
Quick! Act natural before he turns the corner!
I go to pinch my cheeks but stop, now that I know he knows I do this. Pretending like I’m just casually relaxing, totally at home and not at all giddy from the snippet of what I just read I sit down.Nope, that’s not it.I dart up to lie on my belly, hanging my arms over the edge.Nope!
Butterflies stir in my belly, making my fingertips tingle.What the hell is going on?I reposition, shifting to my back and crossing my ankles over the top of the couch so that my hair bundles on the floor. Crap the book… I grab it then wriggle back to how I was.
Okay, but like, why am I so nervous?
Chapter Twenty-Six
