Page 15 of A Smile Full of Lies
I dragged my thumb across my lower lip, my head tipping back against the couch.
That was a problem for tomorrow’s Knox. I just had to come up with something that made sense. Whatever I landed on, she’d believe me. Ros already trusted me. That’s why I had a key to her house, why I could slip in and out of her home as I pleased, even while she slept, completely unaware that I was here, watching over her.
That trust was going to make it so easy for me to pull her under.
My gaze darkened as I minimized the email window and reset the screen to exactly how I’d found it.
Seven years. That’s how long I’ve waited to make her mine.
I watched her walk into Thayer’s arms at eighteen and did nothing because if I’d torn them apart the way I wanted to, I’dhave proven him right. It would have proved every fucked-up, paranoid thing he ever said about me. That I was dangerous. That I was obsessed. That I wanted to steal her out from under him.
So I didn’t do it. I let her go.
I bought the house next door to hers and stayed close. Close enough to watch her smile on her porch swing. Close enough to hear her cry behind her bedroom wall when he started pulling away.
I stayed even after my family was murdered. She kept me alive. That weekend? The one that saved my life? The reason I wasn’t home when they were killed?
I was in Gulf Shores, spying on a girl I thought Thayer was cheating on Ros with. Because Iknewhe was hurting Ros, and I needed to prove it.
I wasn’t there for my family because I was following my obsession. And the sickest fucking part is, I can’t bring myself to regret it.
Because if I hadn’t been there… if I hadn’t been out chasing proof for her, I’d be dead. Just like them.
I buried my parents and my sister, and I still couldn’t bring myself to walk away. I stood at their graves and thought long and hard about joining them. The only reason I didn’t blow my own fucking brains out was Ros.
Her laughter through my walls. Her light at three a.m., when she couldn’t sleep. Her dumb little chicken pajamas and worn-out porch chair.
She was my anchor in the storm.
I inherited a company I had no idea how to run at twenty-one, along with fifteen million dollars, a pile of lawsuits and estate lawyers and press releases. Every single time I thought I couldn’t fucking breathe, I’d look out my window and see her.
Then Thayer broke her. Humiliated her.
And then… that same night, she was roofied at the party where he dumped her. I found her and carried her out. I let Alyssa Allen take her to the ER while I went and picked her Gran up. I gave her Gran a ride to the ER because Mrs. Cooper couldn’t see to drive after dark. I stayed with Ros all night until she was discharged the next morning.
I should’ve killed the guy who did it. I almost gave in to the temptation, but Alyssa and her partner would have figured out it was me who ended him after the conversation we had when I hauled her out of that goddamn party.
After all that, I still fucking waited.
I gave her time. I gave her space. I kept our Wednesday movie nights like clockwork, sat beside her on that sagging couch for almost four years and tried so fucking hard to be normal. Tried not to let her see me unraveling while I waited for her to heal from the heartbreak Thayer put her through.
But this? This changes everything.
She didn’t sell me out. She chose me. Over money. Over safety. Overeverything.
That email was a test she didn’t know she was taking, and she passed with flying colors.
Her filthy little confession to the forum was the match. This? This was the fuse.
Seven years I’ve waited. But I’m not waiting anymore. It’s time.
Her whole life is imploding, and she still protected me. That’s not just loyalty. That’s devotion. That’s admitting without words that she’s mine.
My hand curled into a fist. My cock ached behind my zipper, hard and full and fucking feral for her.
Leave it to Rosalind fucking Cooper to be the only thing in this world that can make me eat my fucking words.
Stonewood Manor wasn’t an option. Not for tourists, not for thrill seekers, not for anybody who wanted to pay for a night of pretend fear. I’d made that clear to Josh Walker the day he called me.
