Page 20 of Man of Lies

No matter how I steeled myself, I couldn't hide my reaction. It was humiliating.

"Get off," I bit out, flexing my shoulders and shifting futilely for leverage. It was useless. There was no give in him.

"Say please." The heat of his breath coiled around my ear like smoke, invasive and intimate.

"Silas…"

"The way you say my name…it sounds a hell of a lot like begging." His mouth didn't touch me, but I could feel the smile shaping his words. It hovered just behind the curve of my ear. "But I think," he added, voice slipping deeper, "you can do better."

I squeezed my eyes shut, willing away the chill skating across my skin. "Why won't you let this go?" I rasped. "You've got plenty ofoptions at the Dead End. Easier ones. People who actually want what you're offering. Hell, you had one hanging all over you five minutes ago."

His body went so still it sent a fresh ripple of tension through mine, like I'd just tripped over a wire stretched too tight.

"I didn't touch her," he said fiercely. "You think that was a date? Christ. From where I was sitting, you and Blondie looked real comfortable."

I twisted my head, trying to glimpse his face, to make sense of what I was hearing—but he shoved me back.

"You were jealous," I whispered, barely daring to believe it.

For a long moment, he didn't respond. Not with words. But his fingers flexed around my wrist, and I swore I felt him tremble, just a little. When he finally spoke, it was a single guttural syllable.

"Yes."

I froze.

Not because of the word itself, but because of how he'd said it. Like it had been torn from him against his will before he could take it back.

No smirk was hiding behind the syllable, just raw, reluctant honesty. For the first time since we met, Silas wasn't toying with me. His iron grip, the press of his chest against my back, the uneven drag of his breath against my neck…none of it felt calculated.

Whatever was happening to us, it was more than just lust. It had him by the throat, too.

"Silas—" I started.

He spun me before I could finish. Fast and angry, so fast my shoulder popped in protest. My back hit the Porsche with a thud. Suddenly we were face-to-face—and Christ, up close like this? He was lethal.

Maybe he was too rugged to stand out in a photo, but in person, Silas McKenna was a smoking hot package of sweat-slick skin and a body built for violence. All raw masculinity that lit me up from the inside out. And worse—heknewit.

We were opposites, sure, but not the kind that balanced. We combusted.

His eyes searched mine, hunting for weakness, something I'd buried that he could drag into the light. Whatever he found, I wasn't sure he liked it. His expression hardened, tightening that mouth I wanted to kiss so desperately.

"Don't look at me like that," he said, reaching out to cup the side of my neck, stroking his thumb against my jaw so softly that it felt like a threat. "Not when you show up at my place whenever it suits you, then act like I don't exist when it doesn't. Not when you keep running the second it feels like too much."

"I'm not running," I ground out, "and I'm sure as hell not scared of you. I'm just bored."

I was lying through my teeth, and we both knew it.

"Yeah?" he murmured, leaning close. His breath skimmed the shell of my ear, and my whole body lit up like the fuse on a bottle rocket. "Then why are you shaking?"

Damn him—and damn my traitorous body for giving him every cue he wanted. He wasn't wrong. My hands were trembling, andmy knees were locked tight to keep from sagging against the car. But it wasn't fear. It was sheer, unadulterated desire flooding my veins until I didn't trust myself to move.

"Because you won't let me go," I snapped, deflecting the only way I knew how.

His smile curved wickedly in the dark. "Damn right. We need to burn this off before it eats us alive. All we need are a few ground rules."

"Rules?" That one word managed to cut through my defenses like nothing else. The part of me that craved control, living and breathing by negotiation, latched onto it like a lifeline. Something I could hold. If there were rules, I could stop falling.

"Yeah." The bridge of his nose skimmed along my jaw before his lips found the corner of my mouth. It was just a taste, barely a kiss, but it sparked every nerve in my body. "Rules. Boundaries. Call it whatever you want. You don't have time for this? Fine. Then we keep it simple, and we keep it clean."

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