Page 157 of Carnal Games

“Thank you,” I whisper, meaning it from the bottom of my heart. I don’t even know how he found me here. I’m just glad hedid. Lost in my Kian haze, the meeting suddenly dawns on me, and I gasp. “Shit. We’re late. Everyone must be waiting.”

“Relax.” A finger presses against my lips, silencing me. “I rescheduled it to two in the afternoon.”

“Oh.” My voice comes out muffled.

His hand drops as he continues to embrace me tightly, making me hyperaware of every soft curve of mine that’s pressing against him. I’m caged between his legs, yet it doesn’t feel like a prison. It feels right. A perfect fit.

“Do you still want to present?” he asks. “We’ll go over the slides together. I’ll answer any questions you have.”

I frown, stunned he’s giving me a second chance. “Do you still believe I’ll do a good job? What if I fumble?”

“Yes, I believe you’ll be amazing. Anytime you become nervous, say my name and I’ll take over,” he replies encouragingly. “If you need more time, we can reschedule it for tomorrow. If you don’t want to do it at all, that’s an option too.”

“No, I want to do it,” I tell him confidently. “Today.”

A half smile tilts his mouth, causing butterflies to erupt in my stomach. Basking in his unguarded expression, I murmur before he draws his walls back up, “Kian?”

“Yeah, rainbow?”

“Please don’t pull away from me.”

His abs go rigid beneath my palm. A rough exhale leaves him. I fear and brace myself for his inevitable mask and brush-off. What he does is much worse, pulling the rug out from beneath me.

“You don’t love Nathan, do you, Iris?”

His question makes me freeze, like a deer caught in the headlights.

I don’t answer. I don’t physically react, feeling any sudden move will give me away. However, he reads my eyes like a book.

“He’s not the one you wish to spend the rest of your life with. You’re with him for a reason. One I can’t seem to figure out.”

My heart pounds louder with each fact he states with conviction. Hitting the bullseye at the first attempt. “What makes you so sure?”

“Because you aren’t the kind of girl who breaks someone’s heart. Or leads two men on at the same time.”

“Maybe I am.”

Gaze sharpening, he shakes his head and grabs my waist tighter with both hands as if he can smell my instinct to run away. “You don’t like to wear his ring. You never call him or talk about him. As eager as you are to have a husband and kids, you postponed your wedding to next year. I sure as hell know you aren’t with him for his money. You’ve been to my club, a wonderland for gold diggers, yet you’ve only had eyes for me.”

How is it that in the three years I’ve been fake-dating Nathan, Kian is the first person to see through the façade and not my two best friends or anybody else in my life? He’s only known me for a little over two weeks.

I don’t know whether to be impressed or scared.

At the same time, I can’t blow my cover. It’s not solely my life hanging in the balance. My mind scrambles for a reasonable explanation while another set of nerves bubbles up in my veins.

“I want to finish my degree first, that’s why we’re waiting to get married next year.” There, it sounds completely reasonable, doesn’t it? “Nothing wrong with that.”

“Liar,” he taunts.

I try to squirm free from his grasp but his hold on me is firm. “I am not.”

“Does your picture-perfect dream include a side piece then? Because that’s the impression you’re giving.” A shocked gasp escapes my lips at his dark accusation. He keeps slicing meopen. “Is that what I am, little siren? Your dirty secret? You’ll fuck me then go back to Nathan in your perfect home?”

“Kian,” I whimper.

In a flash, he rises to his feet and flips us around. Hefting me up until I have no choice but to wrap my legs around him, I’m shoved against the nearest wall. I’m swept in the storm that erupts in his pupils.

“Do I look like a man who shares, rainbow?”