Page 76 of A Smile Full of Lies
“You want the truth?” My voice came out rough, lower than I intended. “Fine. I didn’t answer you at that frat party becauseI already suspected he was cheating weeks before the party. I drove down to Gulf Shores and stalked the girl I thought he was fucking, trying to get proof of what he was doing. If I was going to blow your relationship up, I needed something concrete, Ros, something you couldn’t brush off as me being jealous or trying to sabotage my best friend.”
Her brows pinched, her eyes locked on me like she wanted to peel me open and see all the dark secrets hiding underneath my skin, but she didn’t interrupt me, so I continued.
“But while I was wasting time chasing that proof, my whole life detonated. My family was supposed to be in Atlanta that weekend, but they canceled the trip at the last minute and stayed home.” My jaw locked, teeth grinding together. “I didn’t know until the next morning. Alyssa Allen called me. She was just a rookie cop back then, and too green to hide how wrecked she was by what she found when she arrived at Stonewood Manor. She said she’d done a welfare check and found something I needed to see for myself. That’s how I found out my mom, my dad, and my little sister had been slaughtered while I was stalking Thayer’s side piece, trying to get proof he was cheating on you. I guess she spotted me and warned him, though, because he never showed up in Gulf Shores that weekend.”
The kitchen went dead quiet except for the sound of her breathing, sharp and uneven.
“Oh God, Knox. I’m so fucking sorry. You lost your entire family while you were trying to prove Thayer was cheating on me?”
I dragged a hand over my jaw, pushing through the gravel in my throat.
“After that, I didn’t have the luxury of playing detective anymore. I had funerals to plan. Graves to stand over. Lawyers breathing down my neck. An estate, an inheritance, every scrap of responsibility of being the only living member of the Knox family dumped on me when I was just twenty-one years old. I was barely keeping myself upright, and the rest of my family was already in the ground.”
Her fingers tightened around her glass. She didn’t speak. She didn’t meet my gaze, either. Her eyes were glassy with unshed tears, and she was trying to hide them from me with lowered lashes.
“So by the time that frat party rolled around, you looked me in the eye and asked if I knew. And yeah, I did. But I hadn’t gotten the proof I thought you deserved. I hadn’t had the chance to put it in your hands before you walked in on him yourself. And as much as it gutted me to watch you find out that way, at least you saw it with your own eyes. You had the truth, the irrefutable proof right in front of your eyes. And I hadn’t interfered without just cause and concrete proof.”
I leaned forward, holding her stare, making sure she couldn’t mistake what I was about to say.
“That’s why I stayed quiet, Ros. Not because I didn’t care. Because I cared too fucking much. And the last time I acted on suspicion without proof, I came home to a house full of corpses. I wasn’t willing to risk being wrong again. Not with you.”
Her mouth tightened. She finally raised her gaze to meet mine and didn’t look away, didn’t flinch.
“I get why you didn’t say anything,” she said finally, her voice low and rough. “But I hate that it feels like we let Thayer play usboth. He used the fact that you didn’t want to be the asshole who stole your best friend’s girlfriend against you, and he used my naivety against me.”
I leaned back against the counter and nodded. She wasn’t wrong.
“We were young,” I said with a shrug. “And Thayer was a bigger asshole than either of us suspected. There’s nothing we can do to change it now.”
I let the silence sit between us for a beat longer, then poured another shot for each of us, slid her glass in front of her, and leaned in.
“My turn,” I said, voice low. “Truth or dare?”
Ros eyed me over the rim of her glass like she was calculating a minefield.
“Truth.”
My grin stretched wide, slow and deliberate.
“What happened at the haunted house attraction at Stonewood Manor tonight that has you so flustered and jumpy?”
Her breath caught. She shifted in her seat, squirming like I’d just laid a hand on her bare skin even though we were a good foot apart.
“I—” She swallowed hard. “I changed my mind. I pick dare instead.”
I leaned back, letting my grin sharpen. She wasn’t getting out of this… not tonight.
“Fine,” I said, voice low and satisfied. “I dare you to kiss me.”
Her eyes snapped to mine. That stubborn chin tilted up like she wanted to argue, but she didn’t. She couldn’t. We both knew she was caught.
Slowly, she set her glass aside and stepped into my space. Her small hands slid up my chest, warm against my bare skin, tracing over muscle and my light smattering of chest hair until she reached my shoulders. She rose onto her toes and pressed the softest brush of lips against mine, quick as a breath, like she could satisfy the dare without giving me anything real.
Not a chance in hell, baby girl.
My hand shot up, threading into her hair, tugging her closer. I angled her mouth under mine and kissed her slow, deep, and deliberate — claiming every sound she tried to swallow. She gasped against me, her lips parting, and I plundered her mouth like I’d been starving for it. Her knees went weak; I felt the tremor in them.
I slowed only when I wanted to, resting my forehead against hers, my breath still rough, her taste still on my tongue.
