Page 142 of The Obedient Lie

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My thigh.

My heart.

And for the first time in weeks, I didn’t feel split in two.

I feltheld.

Chapter Thirty-Six

BASTION

It was getting harder to hide.

Not her body. Not the way she looked in satin.

No—what was really getting harder to hide was theneed.

The way it curled under my ribs like fire, burning every time I heard the whispers.

The rumors were everywhere now.

That she slept in our bed.

That the Crow twins shared her.

That we were fucking her every night and she’d started walking different in the mornings.

They were wrong. Butfuck, I wanted them to be right.

I wanted the whole academy toknow. I wanted them to look at her and seeours. Not the legacy daughter they thought they could flirt with. Not the pawn they thought her family could marry off.

Ours.

It waseating me alive, having to pretend otherwise.

And the worst part? Shewasn’t even ours yet.

Not really.

We hadn’t claimed her. Not fully. Not in the way I needed.And she hadn’t told anyone—not a single soul—that she was crawling into our bed each night, wearing the satin we couldn’t touch, pressed between us, like we hadn’t already made up our minds.

Luca was asleep beside her. Or pretending to be. One arm draped loosely over her waist. His breathing was even, but I saw the tension in his jaw. He felt it too.

The lie. The secrecy. The slow rot of pretending the rumors were just rumors when we bothwantedthem to be facts.

And her?

She was nearly asleep like she trusted us with every piece of her. Like it wasn’t tearing her apart, too.

I leaned in close, my voice barely above a whisper.

“Next time someone asks,” I murmured, “you don’t shrug it off.”

Her breath caught.

“You say yes.”

No movement, but she was listening.