Page 4 of Just a Little White Lie

Your skin? Lauren, shut up! He’s freaking Jack Akana! You don’t like this man.

It takes me a moment to figure out what he’s saying, and my reaction is a beat too late.

“Wait, what? Since when?” I spin at the sound of Luke’s footsteps and point at the offending intruder. He’s lounging on the couch like he owns it, and he can’t be living here. I throw my brother an accusing frown. “You didn’t think to mention this in the car?”

He shrugged. “We had more important things to talk about.”

“I thought you were living in Australia?” I whip back to glare at Luke’s buddy since high school, wishing he wasn’t so damn gorgeous. It’s heinously unfair. How am I supposed to live in the same house as him?

Jack shrugs the same way Luke did, and his smile is back in place as he sings, “I’m ba-ck.”

I make a face, hoping to hide every pulsing desire rocketing through my body. As much as I have crushed on, craved, dreamt about, and gawked at this man, we will never happen. For all his gorgeous, godlike goodness, he is the most infuriating person on the planet.

Turning my back, I face my brother and mutter, “Where’s my cell?”

Luke puts on a pleasant smile and gestures down the hall. “Right this way.”

I follow him with a huff just as Jack starts laughing. “Lights out at ten, and no screen time after nine!”

“Bite me!” I snap back, my insides blushing as I picture him nibbling my skin.

Lauren, just don’t!

Closing my eyes, I summon what’s left of my flailing dignity and try to walk tall to my room. Being only five-two, it’s a little challenging, but thankfully my heels give me an edge.

I ease past my brother and take a look around my muted gray-and-blue bedroom. Ugh. It really is a prison cell.

Slapping my tote onto the bed, I eye the plain walls and practical furniture. It’s a far cry from my bedroom in London. I had that thing decked out in colorful fabrics and fairy lights. Artwork covered my walls, and it was like walking into a fairy-tale haven.

“Don’t.”

“What?” I frown at my brother’s clipped tone.

“I know that look.” He points at me. “You’re thinking about how to spend money to make this place look the way you want it, but that’s an unnecessary expense.”

I give him my bestyou be crazylook, but he keeps shaking his head. “If it’s not a need, you don’t get it. And you don’tneedto change anything about this room. Got that? It’s functional.”

“It’s boring.”

“Welcome to the reality of your bad decision-making. Now, unpack and meet me in the dining room in thirty minutes.”

“Piss off.”

Luke pinches his mouth like he’s trying to contain a volcanic eruption. After a deep breath, he points at me with obvious forced calm. “You’re up to your eyeballs in debt, and no one else is willing to take you in. So unless you like living on the street, I suggest you shut that smart little mouth of yours and meet me in the dining room in thirty minutes!”

Exasperated, he slams out of the room, and I slump onto the end of the bed, once again confronted with a fact I can’t deny: I have no more choices left. Whether I want to or not, I have to do what my brother tells me.

I flop back onto the mattress and let out a sigh that just isn’t big enough.

My life feels over.

JACK

Lauren’s door slams with enough force to make me wince, but I try to iron out my expression before Luke storms back into the living area. It’s safe to say he’s highly pissed off right now, but I knew it was gonna be like this.

What I didn’t count on was how freaking hot Lauren is now.

I mean, she was a cutie in high school, but holy mama, she’s all woman now. The luscious curves on that short little body of hers. She sure knows how to make them shine too. Those shiny, skintight leggings with that white shirt and those killer heels?

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