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My belief in his innocence.
I feel used and dumb. Hurt radiates through my body, but I knew what I was getting myself into. I should have seen this, should have known.
“Hey,” Noah whispers, palming my cheek with his warm hand. “It’s gonna be okay.”
I don’t know if I believe that. He asked me to trust him, and I’m trying, but I think believing everything is going to be okay is pushing it.
I’m not sure we’ll ever be okay again.
Three Years Earlier
I AVOID DOING ANYTHING FANCY when I take Mik out for the first time. It’s a Friday night and we’re near her college, the one she just started her freshman year at.
I think she’s surprised when I pull up to the Shake Shack, but I see a smile tug at the corners of her mouth.
“Burgers?” she muses, the question dripping from her tongue with interest. I know what she thinks of me, mostly because she wasn’t shy about sharing her opinion with me.
I’m privileged, rich, an asshole.
And all of those things are true, but there’s more underneath the layers I’ve created.
“They’re good.” I tell her grinning.
A laugh escapes from her mouth, her chest shaking with the noise. “You’re weird.” She tells me, but it doesn’t sound like an insult.
A fucking compliment actually. An acknowledgement that she sees through me, sees a part of me v
ery few ever have.
We order way too much food when we reach the front of the line. Burgers, cheese fries, and milkshakes. I lead her to a booth in the back, farther away from people. I want her all to myself, every moment of her. Every single smile, laugh, word is mine for the taking.
I try to reel in the dominance, not let the hold she has on me show but it’s there.
She’s fucking mine.
She slips into the booth, the metal on the back of her ripped black jeans scratches across the vinyl seat. She has on a black t-shirt with the name of some band scribbled on it and her pale hair is piled on top of her head messily.
“You’re staring at me,” she says, an amused edge to her voice.
She definitely doesn’t fit into my parents’ world, and I fucking love that about her. She drums her chipped fingernails against the table as we stare at each other, still sizing the other one up, not quite sure what this is or where it’s going.
“So… school…” I trail off, not sure what to ask her. I’m normally much more confident, put together, but this girl throws me off my axis.
She snorts a laugh at my attempted conversation before swiping a delicate finger through the loose hairs falling in her face. “Yep,” she says with a pop. “I go to school, good talk.” Her words come out laced with sarcasm, but there is a sweet smile dancing on her lips. She’s amused with me, toying with me. She feels the sparks between us and even though she’s trying to maintain her aloof attitude, I know she’s excited too.
I snort a laugh back at her and pop a fry in my mouth. Energy courses through my body with just a tinge of anxiety. I feel like she’s woken me up from a haze.
“So pretty boy,” she drawls. “What do rich kids do for fun anyway?” She crosses her ankles under her legs in the booth and leans her elbows onto the vinyl table top. My mother would faint if she saw her sitting like that, so fucking unladylike in public.
But blood rushes to my dick at the sight.
I quirk a brow, eyeing her suspiciously. “Why? Are you trying to get in trouble?” I ask, shoving another fry slathered in cheese sauce in my mouth.
Mik isn’t shy about eating either, she unwraps the burger bringing the dripping sandwich to her lips and taking a large bite. I watch as she chews, a little bit of sauce dripping from her lip.
The whole thing looks sensual and I have to fucking calm myself down. She’s eating a damn burger for Christ’s sake, it isn’t erotic. But with her everything feels sexual.
Like she’s putting on a show specially catered to me.
