Page 56 of Under the Lies

He drops me to my feet. I lean against the wall as he shoves the contract into his pocket.

“This changes things.” He wraps a piece of my hair around his finger. “I own you now.”

My spine goes ramrod straight. “You don’t own me, Noah.” Voice as cold as the night.

He smiles. “You sure about that?” He pulls at my hair. “Not five minutes ago you were screaming my name, begging for me.”

“That doesn’t mean you get to put a collar around my neck and tell me what to do.”

His eyes flash and I realize what I said. He’s probably picturing me with a collar in bed, spread out before him…

“Let me rephrase. I own your moans, your sweet lips, and your tight little pussy. As long as I’m here, no other man is going to touch you.”

Noah’s watch dings again and he glances at it before returning his attention to me. “Run along now, Sayer. Jenkins will meet you by my car to take you home.”

Part of me wants to demand he take me home. But I don’t utter a word.

He’s already dismissed me with those parting words, slipping his phone out of his jacket. Fingers scrolling over the screen.

I turn away with, Night, dead on my lips.

He’s already walking away.

And he doesn’t look back.

Not once.

He’s long gone as I get in the car with the feeling of someone’s eyes attached to me, making the hair stand on the base of my neck.

But when I look over my shoulder, no one’s there.

My night off from Noah comes the next night.

I’m walking across campus when I get a text telling me something important came up and we won’t be going out tonight.

Annoyed, I clutched my phone as I fought the urge to throw it at a tree.

Of course. When I want a night off for physical exhaustion, Noah says no. But now when it’s on his terms, it’s okay.

I’m tired of it always being on his terms.

Pan greets me at the door as I walk into my apartment, returning home from one of the worst days of my life. And for once it has nothing to do with Noah.

Oh no.

My day was doomed from the start.

It started when my alarm didn’t wake me up and I slept through my first class, which according to one of the girls I befriended was a big mistake. There was a surprise test.

So, I failed it by not being there.

Then, when I finally got to school, I didn’t realize I was wearing two different boots until Brin pointed it out as we were leaving lunch.

Each foot had a shoe different in color and style. One was over the knee while the other came to my mid-calf. I don’t know how it happened, how I got all the way to campus without noticing, but yeah, I did that.

And because the fates wouldn’t leave me to missing a test and wearing two different shoes, I also spilled my ice coffee in my last class. Liquid went all over me and my notebook and the floor and the people on either side of me.

The professors had to stop the lecture to see why the guy next to me jumped up cursing. Class was put on pause while I rushed to clean it, using my cardigan to soak up most of it.

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