Page 22 of Devious Lies (Cruel Crown)
“Fuck,” he toyed with the word, looking genuinely surprised. “Dirty word for a goodie two shoes…”
Good.
Like being nice and biting my tongue every time Mother spoke somehow made me less than him.
It pissed me off. I raised my arm stupidly. I wouldn’t hit him. I didn’t know what I would do, but it was a reflex, and it amused him.
“Easy, Tiger.”
He didn’t waver as he desecrated two words he’d said to me years ago when I’d run into his and Reed’s arms at the cotillion. I pushed the past away, not wanting to humanize Nash while I felt so furious at him.
He continued, either oblivious or uncaring, “I figured it out a second before you came. I wouldn’t have fucked you if I’d known it was you. I don’t fuck teenyboppers.”
A wave of awkwardness and embarrassment descended upon me.
I fought it.
Hard.
Lifting my chin, I glared at him. “I’m eighteen.”
Barely.
The ten-year age gap between us felt unbridgeable.
But at least it gave me something to focus on besides the fact that I had sex with the wrong Prescott.
Fuck.
Reed.
I continued, “Reed—”
“—won’t know,” he seethed. “You tell him and you fuck up your friendship.”
His tone didn’t match his eyes.
One screamed, you’ll fuck yourself over.
The other screamed, you’ll fuck me over.
It wasn’t only me who didn't want Reed to know. It would damage their relationship beyond repair.
I knew you still care about Reed.
The realization returned a sliver of my confidence. He still had a heart, and needs, and feelings. Blood ran through his veins, just like mine. He wasn’t invincible.
I folded my arms across my chest, pulling the material tighter around me. “Aren’t you supposed to be in New York, opening some destined-to-fail business venture?”
At least that’s what Reed had told me a few weeks ago. Not the destined-to-fail part, but a wound named Ego bloomed beneath my skin, and I didn’t like it. Cruelty was a knee-jerk reaction, one bred into me through years of catty prep school drama, and I almost apologized but couldn’t quite bring myself to.
Two hazel eyes hardened, and he leaned back against the headboard, studying me with a scrutiny I wasn’t used to. Even with Virginia Winthrop as a mom.
“Not that it’s any of your business, Winthrop, I’m in town for a business meeting. Reed is spending the night at Basil’s, so I figured I’d crash in his room since Ma turned my room into a fucking craft room. I didn’t think I’d be accosted by an eighteen-year-old child.”
Fury exploded from my chest to my fingers at his coldness, and I wanted to punch him back—because that was exactly what his words were.
A punch I felt in my gut, worse than anything a physical hit could land.
