Page 61 of The Truth in My Lies (Secrets of Suburbi 1)

“I’m sorry. My ankle just hurts.” I shifted to try to block his view. “And I actually need help with something upstairs. Something really important. So if we can just…” I let my voice trail off. It was useless. His eyes had already moved past me.

He scanned the walls. Or lack of walls. No wall was visible behind the rows and rows of files. “What is all this?” he asked.

“Nothing. Will you help me back upstairs?” I pressed on his chest. “I have that thing I need help with.”

He continued to ignore me as he stepped down to the stair I was on.

I grabbed his arm. “Please, Ben.”

It was like he was transfixed by what he shouldn’t be seeing. My arm slipped from his as he kept walking. I couldn’t let him see it. “Ben, stop.”

He didn’t.

So I did the only thing I could think of. I jumped on his back. Ben was strong enough to support my weight. His muscles had muscles. I could even feel them beneath my flailing body.

But he hadn’t been expecting me to leap onto him at full force.

“Addy, what the heck are you doing?” He tried to peel my arms off of him.

And he definitely hadn’t been expecting me to kick him in the backs of his knees when he didn’t immediately fall. I had taken one self-defense class the first time my husband had hurt me. This was the only thing I had learned from it. The rest of the class was complete garbage. When would walking with a buddy help when you were being hurt in your own house?

Ben and I tumbled to the ground, a pile of tangled limbs. It was like that first day I’d met him. Except I had landed on a pile of bags that day, not on top of him. Ben groaned.

Oh God, I hurt Ben! I didn’t want him to see the files. But I didn’t want to hurt him either. What a pair of useless murderers we would be if we were both injured. Stop it. He didn’t agree to be your accomplice.

The room vanished around me. All I could see was the back of Ben’s head. And the fact that he was no longer moving.

“Ben?” I lightly shoved his shoulder. “Ben?” I pushed it a little harder. “Ben!” I tried to roll his body over so that I could see his face. “Ben can you hear me?” No. No! “Ben!” A sob erupted from deep in my throat. “Ben wake up. Please!” The tears ran down my cheeks freely. I needed to call an ambulance. I needed to move but I was paralyzed with fear. “You’re all that I have,” I whispered.

And then suddenly I was on my back, his strong arms pinning me to the ground.

“Got you,” he said with that stupidly perfect smile of his.

“What is wrong with you? You scared the shit out of me, Ben!” I tried to squirm out of his grip to no avail. “I thought…” but my words died away as he started tickling my sides.

“Ben!” I screamed through my laughter.

He didn’t stop. His hands were all over me, a relentlessly torturous tickling. They felt amazing yet horrible at the same time. The amazing part was winning in my mind though.

“Stop! I can’t breathe!” But I didn’t really want him to stop. I never wanted him to stop touching me.

I tried to tickle him back but he barely flinched.

The warm breath of his own laughter was hot against my neck.

I stopped trying to fight back. I let my fingers wander into his thick hair.

He continued to tickle me until I started taking awkward gulps of air. His fingers stopped. I wasn’t even sure if I was having trouble breathing because of the laughter or because of the excitement coursing through. The hard plains of his body were pressed against mine. It’s all I could focus on.

“You win,” I conceded. I was panting, my fingers still lost in his hair.

He smiled down at me.

And God was his smile breathtaking.

He leaned down slightly, his lips a fraction of an inch from mine. I was tempted to pull his face down to me, but I kept the pressure even on the back of his neck. I wanted him to come to me. I needed to truly know if this was okay with him.

“Addy.” My name was a groan on his lips. It was like a fuse had been lit. I could practically hear the hissing as the fire spread. And the clanging of my heart beating. A steady bang. Bang. Bang.

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