The Lie by Natalie Wrye (primary phonics books .txt) 📕

at me, her eyes slitting in anger, and I swear I see a flash of something else.

Hurt?

Embarrassment?

I can’t tell.

“That’s ridiculous.” I lean closer to her, my cheeks heating slightly.

“Oh, yeah? Is that why you keep calling him that guy?” Nancy blinks at me, her lips parting. “You know what?” she says, her voice even. “I’m tired of this. Let’s just find Eric.”

“You're not seriously defending him, are you?” I ask.

“I'm not defending anything. I'm just saying… You have no room to be so judgmental of whoever I decided to date in the past…given your track record.”

In a nearby room, Nancy and I begin to get into it.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I ask.

“Oh, come off it, Andrew,” Nancy says, her eyes glittering. “You know exactly what I'm talking about.”

“Seriously, Nancy, I have no idea what you're talking about,” I say. Which is true. I have no clue what she's talking about.

“Fine,” Nancy says, “I'll spell it out for you. You slept with Sheena, and you never even bothered to tell me.”

“Well, I wouldn’t call an impromptu blow-job in an employee locker room sleeping with someone, but yeah, sure, we’ll go by your definition. And in case you didn’t know, Sheena was just a one-time thing,” I tell her. “And it happened before we were even seeing each other, so why does it matter?”

“It just does,” Nancy says. Then shocks me when she says, “I saw you.” I knew someone was there but I didn’t think it would be my boss.

She pushes her way through the doors of the mansion, and I follow, unable to do anything else.

The main house of my family's estate is just as huge and old-fashioned as it looks from the outside. The marble floors are huge, and the furniture is all heavy and ornate. The walls are painted a soft grey, and there are ornate chandeliers hanging from the high ceilings.

The house is enormous, and I'm pretty sure it's bigger on the inside than the outside. And it seems even bigger as I chase Nancy down the hall, past another set of stairs and rooms, heading towards the billiards room.

I grab her arm across the threshold just as she crosses it, pulling her close. “You can't seriously tell me you're worried about anything that I've had with Sheena? Sheena… Remember her? The woman you said made rice look smart?” I wait a second, the realization of what Nancy is saying setting in. I sigh. “I am sorry that you saw us in the locker room. I had no idea. I can't imagine what I would do if I saw you with someone else. I would—Fuck, I would lose my mind if I saw you with someone else. I… I’m sorry.”

Nancy's fiery green eyes stare back at me, full of frustrated hurt. “Maybe I am jealous. I don't even know if I have a right to be. I mean, technically, we’re not together…right?”

"Aren't we, though?" I take a step towards her, breathing in her sultry scent—that addictive lemon-soaked smell that drives me insane every time I'm near Nancy. "Do you want to be?"

"No," she answers a little too quickly. "Or…yes. I don't know…"

"I think you do know."

“I can’t,” she rasps, shaking her head. “It’s…it’s not real. Our relationship. We were only selling a lie, Andrew. That's it. And that's all."

I narrow my eyes at her. “Really? You’re really about to do this?”

“Do what?” Nancy asks, her voice rising.

“This.” I motion between us, leaning in farther. “Because if I saw you with any other man, I’m guessing I would be feeling all kinds of things right now. Jealousy, hurt, anger. And maybe I’d even be trying to figure out a way to push you away…the way you are right now.”

Nancy’s green eyes flash with something like confusion. “I… I’m not.”

“You are.” I tilt my head to the side, studying her. “It’s okay, Nancy." I whisper." I’m not going anywhere. I’ve told you that. I’m here"

Nancy's mouth is still. Her eyes are wide, her hands trembling.

I know why it's bothering her so much. Why she looks like a deer in headlights.

Because she's scared. She's terrified.

A taste of hurt has her running for the hills—a habit she's still fighting to kick, and I decide I'm going to push her…

Just like she said.

I'm going to push her until she admits the last thing she's still holding back from me. Those three little words that she still hasn't given me.

Those three little words I want most.

I approach her, crowd her space until her hands clutch the pool table at her sides, her hips pressing against the hard wooden edges at the slight curve of her ass.

My voice nearly drops to a whisper, the words soft and somehow loud in the empty room.

She looks away, her face, flush with red. She's breathing hard.

I stand, still close to her. “I'll ask you again: Do you want to be together?”

“I never said that I—” she says, her voice flinty.

“No,” I say. “You didn’t… But you’re not saying ‘no,’ either.” I grab her by the shoulders and press her farther into the pool table, the mahogany lip of the table biting into her luscious backside as she swallows and looks up at me.

“You're pushing me.”

“Yes,” I say. “I'm pushing you. Because I know you're scared. I know you're terrified. I know you're scared to love me. I know you're scared of being hurt. You're scared that I’ll be the man—excuse me, boy—I was before. You’re scared that I'll break your heart.” I pull her closer to me. “You know I'm not going anywhere.”

“You're not?” she asks.

“You know I'm not going anywhere.”

She's staring at me, and I can see it all there in her eyes.

All that pain. All that fear. All that worry.

“You're not going anywhere,” she says again, and I realize it's a statement, not a question.

“No,” I say. “I'm not going anywhere. I will not be going anywhere. I'm not going to leave… Because I love you, Nancy. I'm so in fucking love