Page 97 of A Smile Full of Lies
“Yeah?”
His voice was rough. Tired. Too soft.
“This doesn’t feel like benefits.”
My breath caught, and I couldn’t speak for the life of me.
“This feels like something I’d fucking kill to keep,” he said, barely louder than a breath.
My heart stuttered.
He pressed a kiss to the back of my neck, and for a long time, neither of us said anything else. But that one sentence changed everything, and I didn’t know how to come back from it.
Chapter
Twenty-Three
NOVEMBER 2
ROS
I wokeup wrapped in the scent of him.
Cedarwood, leather, citrus, and sin.
Knox’s sheets were tangled around my bare legs, his pillow cradling the side of my face, his body still radiating heat as he slept beside me. My body felt boneless, sated, and heavy, like I’d been fucked into another dimension.
Probably because I had been.
My lips were swollen. My thighs ached. My hips still carried the bruises of his grip, but none of that compared to what I felt in my chest. The ache there was deeper, hotter, and more dangerous.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. I’d told myself it would be easy. A casual arrangement. Neighbors with benefits. No strings, no expectations. Just relief from the tension crackling between us like a live wire. Just one night to take the edge off.
But last night wasn’t casual. Not the way he touched me. Not the way helookedat me. I felt it in every stroke of his hands, everybrush of his mouth, every dark command that made my body obey him before my brain could catch up.
I’d never felt anything like it, and that terrified me.
I slipped out of bed as quietly as I could, careful not to disturb him. My knees wobbled slightly when my feet hit the floor. I found his hoodie on the end of the bed and pulled it over my head, letting it swallow me whole.
I didn’t look back at him. I couldn’t, because if I did, I might not be able to leave. And I needed to breathe — just for a minute — before I drowned in everything I was starting to feel.
I padded into the kitchen and busied myself with making coffee, just to give myself something to do.
The coffee pot burbled behind me, the scent rich and bitter, but I didn’t reach for a cup. I sat at the kitchen island, Knox’s hoodie swallowing my frame, sleeves tugged down over my hands like they might protect me from the fire in my chest.
His kitchen was quiet, comfortable, and domestic in a way that made my throat ache. A pot from last night’s dinner still sat on the stove, rinsed and waiting. A few of his sketchbooks were stacked on the far counter. The morning light filtered soft and golden through the windows.
It felt like home, but I was unraveling.
My phone sat face-up on the island, where I’d abandoned it last night. I opened my DMs with Nox Obscura and reread them, then went back over that goddamn phone call with him in my mind. All of it. The filth. The bait. The game. The way I’d let him pull confession after confession out of me like he owned thetruth, and I was just his play pretty, to toy with and peel open as he pleased.
Nox Obscura could ruin my entire life with a single screenshot or phone call. He could destroy the fragile thing Knox and I were building, before it even had a chance to take root. But the truth was… I didn’t care. Not anymore.
I took a slow breath and typed out a message to him.
Midnight Rose
Whatever business you think you have with me is finished.
