Page 180 of His White Moonlight
I shot her a look, which she didn’t see.She was too busy flipping through my camera roll.I watched her humor fade and knew what she was seeing—evidence of my past abuse.My trashed room.Wrecked clothes.Bruises.Cuts.Burns.
“If you’re my friend, you’ll hand that phone to me now and leave,” I said.
She looked up, anger flashing in her eyes on my behalf, and handed over the phone just as the door opened.
“We’ll talk more about this at lunch,” she said, stepping around Bennett to leave.
He watched her for a moment, then focused on me.
“What happened?”
“The Shanes threatened to release the photos Lindi already sent you.I’m guessing they wanted to get me to talk you into leaving them alone, but they never finished their threat when I said I looked forward to the fallout of posting the video I have of Lindi having sex at school.”
“Sex?”Bennett said with a frown.“With a female instructor?”
I snorted.“Someone fed you a big lie.The majority of the instructors were female.A few were men, mostly the subs who covered maternity leaves.”
Bennett’s expression grew darker, and I knew I needed to distract him.
“Why did you show up so quickly?”I asked.“Who tipped you off?”
“Paisley said you were socializing during business hours.I was curious who you’d want to talk to.Why did you go alone?”
“I wasn’t alone.I had Miranda with me.”
He glanced out at Miranda, where she was typing away on her laptop, which was two feet from mine.
“Do you mind sharing your desk with her?”he asked.
I tried to read more into why he was asking, but his expression was a carefully neutral mask again.
“It’s a little tight, but no one’s bothered me.That makes the coziness a positive trade-off in my book.”
“You could have more space if you worked in here with me and let her have the desk out there.”His pupils pulsed larger briefly.
“Would you get any work done with me in here?"
“Yes.”
“Want me to call Miranda in here to sniff-test that lie?”
He smiled and tucked his hands into his pockets.Was it really the relaxed pose he was trying to convey, or was it a way to stop himself from reaching for me?My guess was the latter.
“I plan on having lunch with Miranda today.Do you need a hug or something to hold you over?”
“Yes.”The drawn-out word was punctuated by more eye dilation, but he didn’t move to hug me.Instead, he watched me hungrily as I closed the distance between us.
I was playing with fire as I slipped my arms around his waist.The more contact I gave him, the more he seemed to want.Would he let me reach the time limit this time?
My heart gave an odd skipped beat again as I rested my head against his chest and pressed close.He didn’t take his hands from his pockets to hug me back.Instead, a tremor ran through him.
“What did Mr.Shane say after I left?”I asked, hoping to distract him.
“He tried to appeal to my sense of family.He said Lindi is their only child and just as important to them as you were to me.He said he would send her abroad for five years to mature and develop, and we wouldn’t see her again during that time.I told him that wasn’t good enough and left.”
I rubbed my hand over his back in the soothing way Mom did when she hugged me.
“What do you think they’ll do next?”I asked.
