Page 72 of A Smile Full of Lies
My knees almost gave out. I needed to get out of this kitchen before I did somethingstupid.
I could still feel the stretch of Nox Obscura’s hard thigh between my legs. Still feel the grip of leather-gloved hands on my hips. Still taste the words‘good girl’echoing in my skull like a curse I might never escape.
And now Knox was over here shirtless and smug, looking like he invented the concept of ruin.
I turned toward the cabinet.
“Do you have any chamomile tea or something? I need to wind down.”
“Tea?” he said, voice low and amused.
“Or whiskey,” I muttered, dragging the cabinet open. “Whichever one gets me to sleep faster.”
His laptop clicked shut behind me.
“Rough night?”
I stiffened but said nothing.
“Wasn’t it supposed to be fun?” he added.
My hand paused over the mug I’d just reached for. I didn’t turn around.
“It was.”
“Didn’t sound like it. You’re acting like you ran a marathon.”
I did.
He stepped closer. Not touching. Just close enough that the warmth of his body made my skin prickle.
“You didn’t answer my question earlier.”
“What question?”
“Was it everything you wanted?”
I turned around slowly, mug clutched in both hands like it might shield me. His impossibly blue eyes were dark. Steady. Too knowing.
“It was intense,” I said carefully. “But yeah. I guess it was everything I wanted.”
And then some.
He didn’t blink.
“Good.”
Then, without warning, he moved to the drawer beside me and pulled something out. A neatly wrapped box. He set it on the counter between us.
“Happy birthday, Ros.”
My heart stopped.
Shit.
The man had already spent a grand to give me that haunted house experience for my birthday, and now he was giving me something else? The box sat between us like it might detonate.
It was small and heavy. Matte black with a perfectly tied silver ribbon, tight and neat, like he’d done it himself. Not something passed off to an assistant. Not careless.Deliberate.
