Page 54 of Apparently, I’m Torture

“What are you doing?” Shawn growled as he forced himself into the middle and separated Mia from Stacey with a strength I couldn’t muster.

I collapsed back against the sink, aware of the icing now coating my cheek, my neck, my new pastel pink blouse. Mia had her hands on her hips, pacing back and forth, icing in her brown locks, caking her tight corporate dress. She looked like she still wanted to fight, like an animal on the hunt with nowhere to funnel her aggression.

Stacey looked like a wounded bird. She was skinny limbs, soft doe-eyes and hunched shoulders, looking up at Shawn like he was her hero.

And Shawn just looked pissed. Like we were three students caught scratching the side of his car.

“What the hell was that about?”

The promise of punishment edged his tone, and a thrill slid from my toes to my fingertips. I tightened my thighs, hating that I couldn’t turn off this pull toward him.

Mia glared; lips pursed tight as she whittled her movements down to nothing. “What does it matter if I tell you? You’re just going to take her side.”

He shook his head, exasperated. “Mia, this is the second time I’ve had to pull you off of Stacey since you got here.”

Mia pointed at him. “See? That right there. You take her side over mine and Lilly’s every time.”

He straightened and rolled his shoulders, trying to calm himself. “Mia, will you please just tell me why you two were fighting?”

“Fine,” she ground out. “We were having a chat about how your little strumpet here used to threaten Lilly back in the day.”

“His… strumpet?” A look of confused disgust twisted Stacey’s face, and then it was gone in an instant as she locked eyes with Shawn. “I didn’t threaten her. I don’t think I did, anyway.”

Shawn’s eyes flitted from Mia to Stacey to me. He had no idea what was going on. In the past handful of years, of all of us, the only person he hadn’t cut ties with was Stacey. There was always a chance he’d find out that I was manipulated into dating Trevor, but why would Stacey have told him? It would’ve only made her look bad.

“Okay, there’s a story here, and as much as I’d love to hear it, we aren’t here to reminisce. We’re here to work. Is that clear?”

All this authority pulled a shiver up my spine. “Get a grip, Lilly,” I muttered to myself.

My muttering didn’t go unnoticed. As Mia and Stacey mumbled their agreement and were sent to clean themselves up, his attention landed on me, and I found myself straightening as I wiped at a patch of icing.

“Were you a part of that? Or were you just trying to break them up?”

“The second one.” He drifted closer, and without thinking, I backed up against the sink. “I was trying to stop it, but I wasn’t very helpful, I guess.”

His lips tightened and I held my breath as he reached out to scoop icing from my shoulder.

“It’s in your hair too.”

His voice was soft. I had to grip the sink to stop my hands from shaking. This was too familiar a feeling, too familiar a memory.

“It was probably a given that I’d end up covered in frosting at some point.”

His eyes burned into me, warm and dark; intense. Then he licked icing from his fingers and broke into his classic teasing smile, the kind that made my heart ache. “Probably.”

“Is it alright if I clean myself up?”

“No.”

My mouth dropped open. “What? Why?”

He shrugged, eyes wide and playful. “You’re sweeter like this.”

A huff left my lips and I pushed at his chest. “No, what I am is sticky, and I’m going to shower whether you give me permission or not.”

A laugh poured out of him as I stomped to the door, and I looked back to watch his face shift with it. With warmth, with joy. Those dimples, those eyes, those lips. And I was weightless from the sound of it.

“I don’t think so, Miss Fares. There’s no frosting on that ass of yours. You can sit down and work.”