Page 3 of Bliss

Those light-blue eyes of his traveled over me like a trail of fire, setting my entire body aflame. There was no hiding how I still so easily responded to nothing more than a graze of his gaze. I wanted to disappear. Run, hide. From him, the ache in my core, the agony that was exploding in my chest. All of it needed to stop.

But it was already too late.

An all too familiar pressure began to build within me. It would be like opening Pandora’s box. Once released, my emotions would no longer be containable. I refused to do that in some stranger’s house in the godsdamn Hills with my brother, our cousin, Caprice Knight, and an entire basketball team and their exquisite, glamorous dates as witnesses.

Fuck them, and fuck Noah Kavanaugh.

“Meleğim.” He choked out the endearment.

My angel.

That son of a bitch. He knew what it did to me to hear him speak Turkish, how my heart skipped a beat when he called me his angel. It was something he’d done before I’d even confided in him that my dad called my mom Angel.

And the worst part was that I could see exactly how wrecked he was in that moment. The beautiful face that was normally completely expressionless was loudly broadcasting everything he was feeling.

As if he were the one with the shattered heart. As if he’d been the one abandoned for fame and a huge paycheck. As if he’d been the one left behind to pick up the pieces of a life and a dream while his soul dimmed and withered away until it became nothing more than a ghost haunting him.

“Aşkim.” I flinched before he’d even lifted his hand.

My love.

“Go fuck yourself, Noah.” I grabbed my brother’s arm. “We’re leaving.”

“Bliss, what⁠—”

“Now, Damien,” I seethed, my voice sounding so much like our mother’s that his spine snapped straight and he took two steps before he fully registered what he was doing.

“But Evan and Caprice⁠—”

“Right behind you, cuz.” Evan spoke up, falling into step on my other side. The crowd around us parted when they saw him. Other players gave him a chin lift, their curious gazes falling on me for a split second and then switching to Caprice, whom Evan was more or less carrying.

“Where are we going?” Caprice whined. It wasn’t a cute or even a sultry sound. Her voice grated down my spine, spiking my agitation higher. I shot Evan a look that should have had him quaking in his size-eighteen sneakers.

He didn’t quake, though, which was further proof of how stupid he was. I knew too many dark truths about him for Evan not to have a respectable amount of fear of my ire.

“Time to go, Cap. Our ride is here,” Evan said.

“No. Nope. No. Not happening.” We reached the front door and stepped outside before I dropped my hold on Damien and confronted my cousin.

“Find your own way home. I am not dealing with coked-up Barbie tonight. Drive or call a ride, but that—” I waved my hand in Caprice’s face that she swatted at “—is not getting into my car.”

Evan sighed, exasperated, as if he was tired of my shenanigans. Which would have pissed me off on any other night, but right then, I was feeling fragile and more than a little broken.

I left a cheesecake for this shit.

“Bliss, it’s on your way,” Evan said with a roll of his aquamarine eyes. “It’s only going to take a few minutes. If I waited for a ride, it would take at least an hour. Come on.”

Grabbing a fistful of his shirt, I yanked him down to my level. “The next time you drag my brother to a party and this shit happens, I will call Hayat and let her deal with your dumb ass.”

“You said that last time,” he reminded me with a snort.

“I did say that, didn’t I?” Pulling my phone from my hoodie pocket, I thumbed through my recent call log and swiped over Hayat’s name.

His eyes got huge when he realized what I was doing. Gulping, he tried to grab my phone, but I had enough experience to duck him and was already walking toward my car.

Thankfully, it was still where I’d left it. Nearby, the valet was watching us with mild interest.

“Hello?” Hayat answered on the tenth ring.