Crown of Lies

I moved forward, nudging his shoulder with mine, letting Sage’s tail flick his throat as I circumnavigated toward the exit. “Now, if you don’t mind. I have more pressing things to attend to.”

I looked at the little boy. “Goodbye, Master Steel. I hope you like your new suit.”

Without a backward glance, I marched as prim and proper as I could, yet some feminine part of me put an extra swagger in my hips. My own body irritated me, wanting to come across as aloof and sexy when really I shouldn’t give a damn.

I didn’t give a damn.

I’d dumped his drink on his head a few days ago, and now I’d told him off while he was spending his money in my store.

Oh, well.

That was all he was good for.

Adding to the bottom line and becoming nothing more than a nuisance on my day’s agenda.

“Come on, Sage. Let’s go back to the office.” I made my way quickly through the racks, noticing the mess had been tamed to its usual regimented glory. The long sweeping walkway linking the departments beckoned; I increased my speed.

Something strong and unbreakable latched around my wrist, yanking me backward.

I tripped in my heels, falling.

I crashed against a very warm, very unmovable, very, very toned chest.

Sage meowed, leaping from my shoulders with feline grace and landing on her feet as whoever had the audacity to grab me spun me around and planted two possessive hands on my upper arms. “You don’t get to do that again.”

I focused on his mouth and how damn close it was. How his aftershave reeked of heavy notes and woodsy musk. How his fingers dug into me like talons.

How dare he touch me like that?

How dare he believe he had the right to leap over bounds of propriety and somehow trap me in the middle of an argument I wasn’t even aware existed.

Snatching my arms from his grip, I glowered. “Don’t get to do what?”

“Be rude and leave.” His glare laced with dynamite. “At least, this time, you don’t have access to liquids.”

“If I did, I know where I’d pour them.”

His temper crackled, igniting a magnetic field between us until invisible lines of energy lashed us together. Confused energy. Misplaced energy. Energy that couldn’t possibly spark to the same frequency when I couldn’t stand the sight of him.

“You’ll never do that to me again.”

“I agree.” I nodded with a perfect snap. “Because I plan on never seeing you again. Glad we could agree on something for a change.”

He rubbed his jaw, looking me up and down. “You said you never wanted to see me again at the restaurant, yet here we are.” He looked around the store, noticing what I’d already seen—that we were alone amongst a lake of clothes, hidden by towers of suede jackets and designer jeans.

He stepped closer, backing me up into a rack of limited edition laptop bags for the hard working male. “Did you think about me, Ms. Charlston? Did you think about my offer?” He licked his bottom lip. “Did you think about what we could do together?”

The way he emphasized ‘do’ sent a ripple of frustration through my belly. Frustration born of annoyance and that dreaded awful concoction of lust. The same lust that’d swarmed without warning the night of my nineteenth birthday. The same lust that’d almost made me lose myself to a man I’d only just met.

I’d learned my lesson that night.

I wouldn’t forget it now.

In this light, with the shop fluorescents blaring down and the patchwork of clothes around us, Mr. Everett looked nothing like that man in a black hoodie. It’d been dark that night with so many things happening. My memory struggled to cling to truth rather than embellish with myth. I remembered Nameless had black hair matted into dreadlock-curls, a beard, and clothes that’d long since needed a wash. His eyes were a rich brown like devil’s cake. His lips masculine and handsome, adding animation to an otherwise guarded face.

If he’d been my savior, then Mr. Everett was my nemesis in his perfected splendor and arrogant attitude.

My wits came back, pushing away the heat in my stomach and the fizz in my heart from confronting this man once again.

I slipped into CEO mode, shutting everything else off. The force-field hissing between us severed as I forced a laugh as brittle and bright as glass. “Wow, I knew you had an ego, but I didn’t know it’d taken up residence of your entire body.” I tapped my bottom lip with an ivory painted nail. “What question would you like me to answer first?”

He frowned. “What?”

I counted on my fingers. “One, no I didn’t think about you because you barely factored on my radar of noticeable things. Two, no I didn’t think about your offer because frankly, I forgot about you the moment I walked out of that restaurant. And three, I most certainly did not think about what we could do together because that would mean I noticed you, which I didn’t. Which, I believe, I just clarified.”

Sage wrapped her lithe silver-furred body around my ankles, creating static against my pantyhose. I bent down and scooped her up, careful to keep my eyes away from Mr. Everett’s crotch. I wedged her like a teddy bear into my embrace rather than letting her resume her position like a parrot on a pirate’s shoulder.

I needed her close. I needed to use her as support so I could get out of there and away from this man without either slapping him or kissing him.

I couldn’t understand why my mind flashed with broken things—of violently attacking him, of giving into the unexplainable fury he invoked in me.