Chapter 18 #2
“Fuck, Owen! Protect your left side. You have a terrible habit of exposing it after a right hook.”
Owen steps back and drops his hands. “Excuse me, Miss Perfect. Didn’t realize this was so serious.”
My anger rises. “It wasn’t until you went and did something that almost got you killed!”
Owen’s eyes widen. “How is this my fault?”
“I don’t know! How about you tell me because I know for damn sure that there is more you’re hiding.”
Owen stalks toward me, and I instinctively retreat, my back smashing against the mirrored wall behind me.
He slams both hands on the glass by my head, but I don’t flinch. I know he won’t hurt me.
“And what about you, Miss Riley? How about you tell me why your friends call you Nova and not Nora?” His voice is a low growl that has goosebumps rising all over my body.
Fuck.
“Nova is my given name. I changed it recently.” Not exactly a lie.
He narrows his gaze. “Why?”
“Does it matter?” I ask, exasperated. “It’s just a name.”
“It’s not just a name, and you know it,” he says, leaning closer. The whisper of his breath skates over my lips. I shiver against the wall.
Somehow, I know what he means. It isn’t just a name. It’s the truth of who I really am. A lie I told him to weasel my way into his life. To manipulate him. To take him away from this life and lock him up until his bones turn to ash.
“Nova. Call me Nova.” I whisper because, truth is, I want him to call me by my real name, even if I can’t give him the reason why I lied. Even if, in the end, I’ll never hear it spoken from his lips again.
Owen closes his eyes, and I don’t know if he’s angry.
When he opens them, it’s not rage glinting in them. It’s something that scares me even more. Something dark and promising. Something I refuse to name.
“Owen.” It comes out breathy and shaky, and I have the urge to either run or pull him closer. My hands tremble with indecision.
Owen’s eyes drop to them as if he knows my struggle and is battling the same urges. When his gaze shifts back to my face, they linger on my lips.
He leans closer. So close, I’m pretty sure he can hear my racing heart, and that urge to run disappears.
“Nova,” he whispers, low and deep, as if my name is something sacred.
That name. My name. My real name.
Something snaps in both of us, and the wall I’ve put up comes crashing down. His mouth collides with mine.
It only takes a moment, a single sharp breath before I open my lips and his tongue sweeps in, devouring me.
Perhaps it’s been too long since I’ve been properly kissed. Perhaps it’s that I’ve never quite let myself feel much for the people I’ve kissed. But nothing compares to this one. Nothing compares to the hungry way in which he consumes me or how right it feels despite everything.
If this is how a kiss is supposed to feel, then I never want it to end.
I let out an unintentional moan as my hands reach for him, wanting to fuse our bodies. He releases his hands from the mirror, and they are instantly on me, traveling from my hip to my waist, pulling me even closer.
His responding groan, and his hard body against mine, make me lose myself. All thoughts fall away, and I welcome it. For the first time in a very long time, I simply don’t give a fuck. There is only him.
Until the sound of the door opening has my eyes flying open.
Owen immediately releases me, taking two large steps back. His eyes widen, and his breath comes in shallow bursts.
I have no doubt I look the same, but I school my face into one of neutral disinterest and force my breathing to slow.
My head turns toward the door, Owen following my lead, as Parker walks in and freezes, taking in the two of us.
A broad smile spreads across his face, revealing his identical dimple. It comes out more often with Parker than Owen. A thought that leaves me feeling oddly sad.
“Am I interrupting?” he asks innocently.
Owen finally snaps out of it, walking toward his brother. “You know you are, but we were only sparring.”
Parker’s eyes shoot to me and back to Owen. “Well, if that’s all you were doing, I sure hope she kicked your ass. Given your eye, I feel like I may have already missed it.” He says the last part with a disappointed pout.
“What are you doing here so early, and what do you want?” Owen barks.
“I could ask you the same question, big brother?” Parker shoots back with a mischievous grin.
“You know I’m always here.”
“Sure, but that’s usually with a naked woman and cocktails. She’s your assistant, and she’s fully clothed.”
I can’t quite gauge what he’s trying to get at, so I quickly grab my sweatshirt and throw it over my head before Parker notices my arm or shoulder. That’s a whole other conversation I don’t want to get into.
Parker looks at me as if he already knows what happened, even if he didn’t see anything.
“What’s your point, little brother?” Owen seethes.
“No point. Just came in to tell you your new security is here.” He says it so casually that I almost laugh.
“And you’re the messenger because?”
“Because I’m the only one here this early besides the two of you, dumbass. They were hanging around the entrance waiting to be let in.”
“Shit,” Owen mumbles before racing to his desk and picking up his phone. “Missed messages from Noah.”
Parker shakes his head. “Losing your grip, big brother.”
Owen flips him off and puts the phone to his ear. I chuckle, walking back to my desk. I’m too grateful for the interruption. I’m not sure I’d have been able to stop Owen on my own. I don’t think I’d have wanted to.
Parker saunters over to me while Owen says a few words to Noah. He plops on the edge of my desk and looks at me with mirth in his blue eyes.
“Yes?” I ask, though I’m not sure I want to hear what he has to say.
Parker crosses his arms and looks at his brother for a moment. “I’m doubting it was on your job description to come here before sunrise, so why are you here exactly?”
“I don’t sleep well, and he doesn’t sleep well. We both work out, and this office is far closer to my apartment than the gym. That’s it.”
He nods his head, but his mischievous grin is still plastered on his face. “Right. So, my brother gave up his one-night flings to work out with you instead?”
I shrug. “Perhaps he kicks them out before I get here. It’s none of my business.” Parker smirks at my response, which only fuels my fire. “You’d be better off being direct. I don’t like to play games, Mr. Mills.”
Parker chuckles. “I have no intention of playing games, Miss Riley, especially since I don’t want to end up with an eye that looks like my brother's. How, again, did that happen?”
I roll my eyes, desperately wanting this conversation to end. “He startled me, and I instinctively threw a punch.”
Parker laughs this time, earning his brother's attention. “Oh, how I would have died to have seen it.”
I stand up from my chair, intending to go to the bathroom to shower. “I’ll be done in ten minutes and perhaps we can have our scheduled meeting a little early? Discuss charity donations and get it out of the way?”
He nods, still smiling. “It’d be my pleasure, Miss Riley.”
I roll my eyes again and shut the bathroom door. It sounds like a hammer dropping. One that may crush me.