Page 85 of A Smile Full of Lies
A sharp pulse of heat burned low beneath my skin. Memories of how it felt when he threaded his fingers in my hair and kissed me set my blood on fire.
“Is it? Answer me.”
“…No. I don’t want to pull away from him. That’s what scares me. But what I want and the smart thing to do are two very different things.”
His reply came instantly.
“Good girl.”
My whole body tightened like a spring about to snap in half.
“Are you done torturing me yet?”
“Not even close. So here’s the real question, sweetheart…”
Fuck my life.I shuddered.
“If you want him so badly, why haven’t you let him have you yet?”
“Why do you care?”
“I’m going to let the backtalk slide just this once, but you’re on very thin ice. One more strike and I’ll message him and tell him everything.”
“Fine. Because I’m scared, okay?”
Fuck.
My stomach flipped violently, and my chest tightened.
“Scared of what?”
“Of what happens after I give in.”
There was a long pause, and I thought for a second that I might be off the hook. No such luck, unfortunately. His voice rumbled over the line again.
“Why?”
My throat closed up.
“Because I used to date his best friend. From the time I was eighteen until I was twenty-one. I was stupid and naive enough to believe in forever back then.”
“What happened?”
“Thayer cheated on me. Publicly. He humiliated me at a frat party where I caught him fucking another girl upstairs. And the idea of giving Knox that kind of power over me — the power to break me the same way Thayer did — terrifies the hell out of me.”
A long, charged silence stretched between us.
“Oh, sweetheart, it sounds to me like you just need to be broken properly.”
I pulled my phone away from my ear and stared at it in disbelief.
“And I’m just the man to do it.”
My heart hammered so violently I could feel it in my throat. My jaw locked.
“You’re one arrogant motherfucker, you know that?”
His laugh was downright insidious.
