Page 81 of Prince of Lies


Font Size:  

His words felt like an oath, like a promise. There wasn’t a part of me that didn’t trust him to keep it.

And if getting Project Daisy Chain made—the one and only goal I’d focused on for years—no longer felt like quite the happily ever after I’d dreamed of, well, that was my own stupid fault. Cinderella only gotonewish.

“Thank you, Bash,” I whispered. “Truly.”

Bash leaned over to kiss my cheek. “You thrill me,” he said softly before nuzzling the side of my face and brushing his lips under my ear. “Landry was right. I’ve been looking for excitement in all the wrong places. You inspire me to remember who I am and who I want to be.”

As always, proximity to Bash made my mouth start running independently of my brain. “I’m actually pretty boring when you get to know me.”

Way to sell it, Prince.

Bash pulled back and met my eyes. His shone with life and happiness. “A quirky billionaire like yourself, Sterling Chase? Never in a million years.”

We talked through turkey paninis and dessert cocktails. We talked until the sun dropped low in the sky.

We talked until even the tap water was at risk of running out.

And then we went back to the house and let our bodies do the rest of the talking for us.

NINETEEN

BASH

I was falling in love with Rowe Prince. I knew it, Kenji knew it, and all of my friends knew it, too.

If I ever got up the nerve to tell him, poor Rowe would be the last to know. Hopefully, he could feel my affection through every touch and kiss between us because thinking about actually saying the words out loud to him terrified me.

It was too much, too fast. He had obligations to his family back in Indiana that he couldn’t and wouldn’t put off forever. He had major insecurities about money, like he hadn’t put together what I’d told him about Daisy Chain’s potential profitability with the concept that soonhewould hold the patent. And I didn’t want to make him any promises, to get his hopes up about anything, until we could clear Austin Purcell out of our lives forever.

So I kept my feelings to myself, held it close and tried to appreciate these “between” days where we were no longer simply fucking but not quite officially together. It was quietly exciting, the closeness that built between us as we lived and worked together. A glimpse of something real that I wanted profoundly. But there was a stubbornly transient quality to it, too, that made me hold my breath when we encountered a setback with IT or when Rowe had a long, stilted call with his parents where he told them he needed more time in New York, wondering if that would be the thing that tipped the balance. I held him tight every night, hoping he didn’t run away before we could get this sorted.

And then, like a plague of locusts in ridiculously expensive cars, my friends descended.

Early Thursday morning, Rowe perched on a stool in the kitchen, checking his email. I’d positioned myself behind him, nominally waiting for the “jazzed-up TikTok cinnamon rolls” Rowe had baked to cool so he could ice them, but mostly enjoying the excuse to wrap my arms around Rowe’s waist, kiss the skin behind his ear, and make him shiver.

“What’s that noise?” Rowe asked, his voice breathy from the kissing. “That thumpy sound?”

I was on the verge of saying one of the unforgivably cheesy things that started popping into my head this week, like “that’s my heart, beating for you, baby,” when I heard it, too. An unmistakablethunk scrape thunk scrape, coming from outside.

I barely had time to straighten up before the side door opened, and Kenji and Landry invaded our space without even saying hello.

“…notbuying me a Louis Vuitton suitcase,” Kenji insisted. “You can replace the exact one you just destroyed.”

“I didn’t destroy it! I lifted it out of the trunk of the clown car you insisted on driving down here—”

“And the back wheels just decided to swan dive to the pavement? No. Don’t blame the car for your lack of spatial awareness, Landry Davis. And you can march your ass right into Target and buy me a new one.”

“I hate Target. I always leave with toilet paper,” Landry whined. “I don’t even go to the toilet paper department!”

“Oh hey, guys.” Kenji set a bunch of grocery bags on the other end of the kitchen island and belatedly noticed Rowe and me staring at him. “There’s a bunch more groceries in the car, Bash, if you wanna help unload.”

I blinked. “I… don’t recall asking for groceries?”

“No, well, with five extra mouths to feed, I figured…” Kenji shrugged. “Easier to just get it on the way. Hey, Rowe.”

“Uh… hey?” Rowe said, at the same time I said, “Five extra mouths?” both of which were practically drowned out by what sounded like a jet airplane landing on the lawn.

“Sick,” Landry said, running to the door like a little kid. “Zane brought the Spider.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like