Page 74 of A Smile Full of Lies
The words hit me like a lightning strike to the chest. It wasn’t a romantic opportunity, but it was almost as good. It was trust, and she was submitting to handling my family’s story the way I wanted her to. After everything that had happened tonight — thehunt, Ros coming for my masked alter ego like she was made to surrender to me, her avoiding my eyes as if she could wash me off with cold water and rationality — she’d just handed me this gift.
“My way,” I echoed, testing the feel of it in the air between us.
She nodded without looking up, not allowing me to see her gorgeous blue-green eyes.
“I’ll cut Nina out and self-publish just like you said.”
She was more and more mine with every second she spent under my roof, and she didn’t even know it.
I stepped closer, close enough that the sketches rustled in the draft of my movement, but not close enough to spook her.
“I’ll back you like I promised, Ros. If you want an advance on royalties — today, tomorrow, whenever — you have it. No strings attached.”
Her mouth twisted, and I knew what her answer would be before she even spoke.
“You already spent a grand on me for my birthday,” she said, her voice tight. “And besides that, you’re not letting me pay rent. I cannot take any more money from you… my conscience won’t allow it.”
That declaration knocked the air out of my lungs.
The ticket to The Hollowing... she must have looked up the price the second I gave it to her. She’d carried that number like a stone in her pocket all week, but she’d still shown up. Still walked into Stonewood Manor, into my hunt, into my hands.And she’d climaxed for me in the house where my family died. And afterward, she’d whispered, “I wish it had been you, Knox.”
She could tell herself this was about money all she wanted, but I knew better.
“Ros—”
“I mean it.” She squared her shoulders and tipped her head back to glare up at me, stubbornness written all over her gorgeous face. “You’ve done enough for me.”
I could’ve told her she was wrong. I could’ve told her money meant nothing to me, that I wanted to shoulder all her problems. That I’d like nothing more than to keep building floors under her until she stopped worrying about falling through the cracks.
But I doubted she’d let me go there tonight, so I smoothed it over instead.
“You’ll always have a safe place to land with me. I’m not keeping score.”
Something fragile flickered across her face, too quick for anyone else to notice, but I wasn’t anyone else. I saw it.
“You’re too good to me,” she murmured. “Better than I deserve.”
Heat climbed up the back of my neck, the angry kind. I thought of the way she’d smirked at those girls in line tonight—claiming me with nothing more than a curl of her lips and a sharp glance over her shoulder.
Wouldn’t you just love to know, sweetheart?
She never imagined I’d see it, hadn’t suspected I might hear her voice on the feed when she said she knew me intimately. But Iwitnessed all of it, and now she was standing here, trying to tell me she didn’t deserve my care?
Bullshit.
Out loud, I kept my voice calm.
“You’re wrong. You’re hard on yourself because it gives you a sense of control. It’s a false sense of security, though. You wanna know what it really is? It’s self-flagellation in disguise.”
She looked away first, lashes lowering, hand twitching as she stacked the sketches into a neat pile like she could organize her way out of what had just passed between us.
“When can I interview you?” she asked, her voice sharper than it needed to be.
She was trying to pivot. Of course she was. It was a classic Ros move.
“Not tonight,” I said.
Her brows furrowed.
