Page 123 of The Lies We Play
“And I don’t feel less attracted to you because I want her. It’s not either or for me.”
Halston’s mouth parts slightly.
A small reaction.
Almost nothing.
Enough to make my blood heat.
“Nor is it for me,” he agrees.
The fire shifts behind him. The snow keeps falling outside and disappearing against the window. I think about Liv in my sweatshirt, Liv arguing with James at the bar, Liv looking between us like she already knew this room existed and had been waiting for us to find the door.
Halston’s fingers move against the table.
“I don’t want to be tolerated by you,” he says.
The bluntness of it lands hard.
I meet it with my own.
“I don’t tolerate men I want.”
His eyes darken.
“Creed.”
“That is the truth,” I say. “You’re welcome.”
He laughs under his breath, but it doesn’t break the tension. If anything, it makes it worse, because now I know what his face looks like when control loses by one inch.
“I want you,” he says. “And I want her. And when I am with her, I think of you. When I am with you, I think of her. I have been trying to decide whether that makes me selfish.”
“It makes you honest.”
“It could make me dangerous.”
“To whom?”
“To both of you.”
I shake my head. “No.”
“You’re very certain.”
“On this, yes.”
His gaze holds mine.
“Why?”
“Because dangerous people don’t worry this much about hurting someone.”
He looks away first.
That feels like victory and mercy at the same time.
I let him have the window.
