don’t know what I was thinking. I just can’t sit down here day after day and wait to be drugged, tortured, and most likely eventually killed.”
I know what she means. Even now that we have a sort of plan, I don’t want to just sit and wait, filled with an unlimited amount of anxiety. I’m paranoid that every sound is them coming for us—coming to hurt Liesel.
“Then let’s not just sit around waiting.”
“What do you suggest?” Her cheeks blush, telling me the dirty thoughts she’s thinking.
“You want to be honest with one another so we feel like we are fighting on the same side. Then let’s be honest. Rattle off random truths. Simple truths that don’t really matter but tell us something about each other.”
“And if either of us lie?”
“Then, the other gets to steal a kiss.” It gives me more incentive to lie than tell the truth, but we are both far more comfortable lying than telling the truth anyway. And Liesel needs more excuses to kiss me. Or maybe she needs an excuse to pull away from me. Either way, I’m going to learn more about her feelings for me this way than if I ask her questions directly.
“I love being a lawyer,” she says.
“That, I believe. You always enjoyed arguing with people.”
“I do, but as hard as it might be to believe, I also enjoy helping people, whether society says they deserved to be helped or not.”
“Hmmm, I never would have taken you to have feelings for other people.”
“Are you calling me a liar?” she asks. She’s been walking in circles around the room, running her hand along various lines on the bricks, while I sit in the center watching her.
“No, just surprised to find out the ice princess has a heart.”
Her eyelashes bat in my direction, like she’s trying to hide more of the mystery of who she is.
“I hate my beach house. It’s so big, and I prefer the cold of the mountains to the beach. I think I’m going to have to build a new dream house in the mountains.”
Her mouth falls open at my words, and I think I heard a little of her heart breaking.
I grin, flashing her my dimple.
Her eyes change in realization. I told a lie so she could decide whether to call me out on it and earn a kiss. Of course, I love my dream house. I love the ocean. I wouldn’t trade it for any palace in the world. She knows that. But does she want to kiss me again in the daylight?
“I hate the beach house, too. You locked me in a freaking closet. You locked me off from your real home with Phoenix and your kids. The views were horrible. You tainted my dream house by making it my jail cell. I hate it, too.”
She holds back a smile as she says it. She’s teasing and taunting me just like I did to get a response. But I won’t be the first to crack. I won’t be the one asking for a kiss. We both already know that I want to kiss her. It’s her feelings that I’m trying to figure out.
“I have a favorite child. Atlas is so much more sensible than Rose. I hate how much trouble Rose gets into.”
Liesel frowns and shakes her head, knowing once again that I’m lying, but she doesn’t say it.
“I think Phoenix and I will become great friends. The best of friends.”
Her lie is just as brazen as mine, but once again, I don’t call her out on it.
“Good, because I think once you get to know Phoenix, the three of us will enjoy having a threesome.”
“Liar.”
I grin seductively. “Oh, yea? You think I’m a liar?”
“Yes,” she breathes, barely able to get the single word out.
“Do you want to punish me by making me kiss you? Or would you prefer a different punishment?”
She stops circling me. “Stand up.”
I do as she says.
“You’re a cheating bastard, Langston. You lied on purpose to get a reaction out of me.”
“Did I? But then, that’s the game. Kiss me or don’t. Either way, I’m a tortured man. Kissing you tortures me, dangling so close to what will never be mine. But at least I get to kiss you. Not kissing you breaks my spirit.”
“We can’t have that.”
She walks over to me until we are standing face to face.
“What stops you from wanting me? From wanting to fuck me? From giving in to your lust?”
She purses her gorgeous red lips, that still