Crazy In Love (Secrets of Suburbia #3) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,68

blood wouldn't splatter on the kitchen stools. Blood was very hard to get out of upholstery.

Chapter 22

Sunday

For a few seconds we just stared at each other, waiting for the other person to make the first move. It reminded me of our proposal. We'd been watching the sunset from the boardwalk. I'd felt this nervous energy in the air. I was pretty sure he had been about to break up with me, so I hadn't said a word. I'd just tried to hold on to the moment. But after the most awkward stretch of time, he’d gotten down onto one knee and proposed.

But Noah wasn't about to propose now. He was about to kill me. And I didn't need to pretend that it wasn't about to happen. Because I was going to kill him first. For some reason my eyes were glued to his perfect abs instead of where I needed to slice his throat. Shake it off. It's go time. Before I could lift my axe in the air, though, the jerk started talking.

"You're soaking wet."

I swallowed hard. "Excuse me?" There was literally no way for him to know that I was aroused by his stupid body. "It's not my fault that you refuse to put a shirt on."

He smiled out of the corner of his mouth. "Wow. Not at all what I was referring to. You're drenched. Let's get you a hot shower and some dry clothes before you catch a cold."

Oh. I looked down at my clothes. I'd been rolling around in the snow making snow angels. And the snow had inevitably melted. I looked like a drowned cat. I was surprised Snuggle Muffins wasn't chasing me around the house. I shivered. Noah was probably right. I needed to change before I caught a cold.

He took a step toward me.

Not so fast, sweet talker. I knew what he was up to. And it was nothing about being nice. I lifted the axe.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, his thick eyebrows drawing together beautifully.

"Doing what I should have done when you were tied up. Unless you want to go back downstairs willingly." I took two steps forward for every one of his steps back.

"You're crazy," Noah said. "You do realize that, right?"

I gripped the axe tighter. "I'm not crazy. I hate when you call me that." I really wanted to chuck it at his perfect face. And it would have made a much bigger dent in his skin than the knife had in the wood. I cringed at the thought of blood dripping down his chiseled abs.

"Babe. You're holding an axe like you're about to chop off my head. That's psychotic. Put it down."

Telling me that I was insane was not working in his favor. "I'm hoping it doesn't have to come to that. How about we go back down to the basement? I'll tie you up to the chair where you belong. And we can go back to normal."

"Normal? Being tied up in the basement isn't normal, Ensley. Nothing about this is normal." He gestured back and forth between us.

Him saying my name was jarring. Him remembering? Horrifying. I held the axe out in front of me. "March." I pointed the axe to the basement door. "Now."

He put his hands up, and for the first time, I realized he was unarmed. His hands didn't look like shovels anymore either. It was like he was transforming in front of me. He didn’t even look like he was about to kill me anymore. He looked innocent.

But I knew it was just a ruse. "Where’s the knife?" I asked.

He lowered his eyebrows. "What knife?"

"The one you took out of the knife block. The one you're planning on stabbing me with!" I pointed the axe towards the kitchen counter.

"I don't have a knife. I never had a knife. And I swear I'm not planning on hurting you. I'd never hurt you." He licked his lips and dropped his gaze from my eyes to my axe. "I’m not the one threatening bodily harm here, Ensley."

Every time he said my name, my mind scrambled. "But...then where is it?" Noah was a liar. And I knew he was lying right now too. The knife was probably tucked into the back of his jeans. Hidden right above his firm booty. Stop.

"I don't know. But I swear I don't have a knife."

I kept my axe lifted in front of me as I made my way over to the counter. Had the knife just fallen or