Page 15 of Indecent Lies

It wasn’t as though they were even Facebook friends.

He cut off ties with anyone from his old life and liked it that way.

“Let’s go, little girl.” He gruffed and proceeded to walk to the door.

He heard her gasp and then a fast goodbye with Roux and then the slap of tennis shoes behind him.

“Oh my God, can you just wait a second? I can’t walk as fast as you.”

He didn’t stop.

“Tait, hold up. What happened? Did you really pay to get me released?”

He turned suddenly and she almost smacked into his chest, if not for his quick reflexes catching the top of her arms, she would have broken her pert nose.

Electricity shot down both his own arms and he had to reason it was static energy.

“Get on my bike, Poppy. I’m taking you to the nearest train station or airport. Your choice.”

She visibly paled.

“What?”

“You’re going home. This is no place for you.”

“I … Tait. I can’t go home. I won’t go home.” She reaffirmed and shot her chin stubbornly in the air so she could look him in the eyes. And then didn’t she just put the cap on the bottle of fucked up juice by adding. “I came for a reason…well not here-here, but here. I want to claim asylum with you. You have to take me in.”

What.

The.

Mother.

Fuck?

FIVE

“Is there room at the Tait inn for a clumsy socialite?” – Penelope

“You want what now?”

“Asylum. It means to ask for shelter because you have nowhere else to go.”

“I know what it means. I want to know why you’re talking nonsense.”

Poppy’s shoulders rose almost to her ears at the tenor in his voice.

This was definitely not the boy she remembered.

He was sweet and kind and always laughing at something, mostly when he was showing off. She hadn’t seen this Tait smile once yet, and he wore deep lines etched into his forehead.

Not to mention the way he was looking at her like she’d grown horns or something.

She was sick of people making her feel pathetic. “It’s not nonsense, but thanks for making me feel like an idiot. You know what, you can drop me off at a bus station.”

As for colossal mistakes, Penelope was batting 2 for 2 so far this week.

Turning her back on him so he wouldn’t see her eyes mist over, she clutched her medium sized purse to her chest and took a few deep breaths she’d learned from all those stupid yoga classes her friends dragged her to.

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