Page 86 of Prince of Lies


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I lifted an eyebrow and asked hopefully, “Sexy?”

“Kind,” Rowe said with a grin. He pushed up on his toes and kissed me, and my arms instinctively went around his waist. “And sexy, obviously. Goes without saying.” He sank back down but linked his hands behind my neck. “Thank you for trusting me with this. I promise, I will keep your secret safe.”

“I know you will.”

“But let the record show,” he teased, “I trusted you first.”

I snorted. “Is that right,Sterling Chase?”

“Mmhmm. I told you about the li’l baby Cupid picture,” he said loftily. “There is no greater trust than that.”

I covered his smile with my lips and took his laughter deep inside.

“Your friends are pretty great,” he said a long moment later when we came up for air. His hands roamed over my chest, lighting tiny fires everywhere he touched. “I’m glad. You deserve them.”

“They are,” I agreed. “I’m glad they came—”

Down the hall, a smoke detector began to wail, followed instantly by Kenji yelling, “Everything’s fine! Silas doesn’t understand how toasters work, but otherwise, we’re all okay!”

“—and I’ll be very glad when they go away,” I grumbled.

Rowe stifled his laugh in my chest. “Come on. Let’s go rescue them. It’s the least we can do.”

A little while later, I found myself perched on a stool, watching in amusement as Kenji tried to ride herd on all the sous chefs in the kitchen while Zane strummed his guitar at the kitchen table. It was chaos… and I thought I could get used to it.

Eventually, Silas, who’d been exiled to the living room for crimes against food preparation, came and stood by my shoulder, watching the spectacle with me.

“I told him,” I said simply.

“Good. And you two are together now?”

I shook my head. “He can’t make that decision yet, so I didn’t ask. He’s got too many other things to focus on. But after Monday…”

Silas nodded. “And if things don’t work out? If he makes a different choice?”

“He still won’t tell anyone.” I’d bet my fortune on that. In a way, I had.

Silas fell silent for a moment, but it was the kind of silence that I knew meant he was churning things over in his mind methodically, logically.

“Spit it out,” I prompted easily.

“Are you gonna be able to handle this and stay professional? Because I can take point on the Austin fiasco. Fuck knows you did it for me when things with Justin went to shit.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, and he shrugged.

“Yes, I know I was the one who just wanted to fire Austin in the first place, but now, after talking to Legal…” He shook his head. “You were right. That would have been the worst possible course. We need to pull Austin’s fangs by reminding him of the nondisclosure agreement he signedbeforehe does anything rash that would earn Sterling Chase media scrutiny—like complaining about his wrongful termination at the same moment your new boyfriend is applying for a patent on the project Austin’s trying to take credit for.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Zane’s career is taking off, Kenji’s barely keeping Landry’s behavior off the radar, Dev’s in no shape to have people poking around his personal life. I don’t want this to blow up in our faces. And more than all that, I don’t want you to have to worry about all this when you’ve already got enough on your plate.”

Silas had always been the mother hen of our group, and I appreciated that he was concerned about my emotional well-being, but…

“I’m fine,” I assured him. “I care about Rowe a lot. I want to build something real with him. But Silas, Sterling Chase is still my baby. It means more to me than anything.”

I said the words with confidence, believing them to be absolutely true…

But less than twenty-four hours later, I realized I’d become a bigger liar than Rowe Prince ever was. Because when I had to choose between Sterling Chase and…Sterling Chase, there was hands down no question which I’d choose.

My Prince of Lies would win every time.

TWENTY

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