Page 109 of A Smile Full of Lies
Let her sit with that silence. Let it gnaw at her until I walked through the door.
The second I ended the call, I was moving.
The deck’s concrete swallowed the sound of my shoes as I cut across the painted lines, keys in hand, chest wound tight. By the time I slid into the driver’s seat, my pulse was a steady roar in my ears.
I didn’t turn on music. Didn’t need it.
I had her voice replaying in my head on a loop — panicked, apologetic, small.
I didn’t mean for you to find out like this… I’m sorry, Knox.
Christ. That apology was a fucking drug. Like she thought I was the one wronged. Like she didn’t realize I’d been holding the knife the whole time.
I started the truck, slammed it into gear, and peeled out of the deck. The tires squealed against the ramp, echo chasing me into daylight.
He thought I’d find it interesting, but it seems like you really pissed this guy off when you told him you were choosing me.
Her silence after that? Gold. I could still taste it.
Traffic blurred around me as I pushed ten, fifteen miles over the limit. White lines streaked past in my periphery, wind tearing through the open window, but none of it cooled the fever under my skin.
I gripped the wheel tighter, knuckles blanching.
I choose him. Come what may.
She thought she’d whispered that to the dark. To a mask. She didn’t know she’d handed it to me. Philip Knox. Her neighbor. The man who’d been circling her for years.
And now she was cornered.
I wanted to rip straight through the red lights, take every shortcut in the city just to get to her faster. My body ached for it — cock straining against my zipper, chest tight with the need to see her face when I laid it out.
But I forced myself to throttle back. Not speed — control.
This wasn’t about fucking her against the kitchen counter until she sobbed my name. Not yet.
This was about the look in her eyes when I made her own every word. About closing the gap between the fantasy she thought she could hide in and the reality she couldn’t run from anymore.
I flexed my fingers against the wheel, let the silence stretch, and smiled to myself.
Ros thought she was afraid of what Nox Obscura could do with her secrets.
She hadn’t seen what I could do yet.
When I got home, she was right where I knew she’d be.
Perched at the island, legs folded beneath her like she’d tried to curl into herself. Phone clutched so tight her knuckles blanched. Hoodie sleeves shoved over her fists like she was bracing for impact.
She didn’t look up when I walked in. Didn’t have to. The way her shoulders stiffened told me she felt it — the shift in the air the second I crossed the threshold.
I set my keys on the counter with a deliberate clink, unbuttoned my cuffs, rolled them back slow. Gave her the show of a man calm, collected, in control.
Then I leaned against the opposite counter, hands braced, eyes on her.
“So…” I let the word draw out, casual as a knife flick. “You want to tell me why some masked TikTok creator sent me a transcript of you confessing you have feelings for your neighbor?”
Her head snapped up, eyes wide, lips parting on a sharp inhale.
“Knox—”
