Page 15 of Cinder (MC Fables #2)

L ars

She looks fucking adorable.

Because she wasn’t expecting me, her eyes flare with surprise. For a split second she doesn’t know what to do. So she bites her lip, which makes me want to walk over there and bend her over the couch and do all the things I’ve been thinking about doing to her since I first laid eyes on her.

But then she straightens her back, and her face hardens, and one eyebrow shoots up.

“Actually, yes.”

She stalks over to me and reaches for it, but I pull it away.

“Not yet, Little Firecracker. Not until you answer a few pressing questions I have. ”

She glares at me and crosses her arms. “This again?”

“Yes, this again.”

She sighs heavily. “Okay Sherlock Holmes, what is it you want to know?”

I smile at her attempt to be brave. It’s a facade. But I appreciate it. “Who you are and what you’re doing here.”

“I’m Ella, and I’m here for my mother’s watch.”

“Nice try. How about you tell me who Ella is and why she came to the clubhouse tonight. The first time. And don’t tell me you were Cheezy’s date.

You and me both know he’d be punching way above his weight with you.

No girl in their right mind would come to the clubhouse with him.

Especially not someone who looks like you. ”

A smile tugs at the corners of those plush lips. “And how does someone like me look?”

When I stand, I tower over her. “Guilty.”

Her smile quickly fades and then it’s a battle of the arctic stares. She glares at me, and I glare right fucking back at her.

“Give me my watch,” she says through gritted teeth.

“Who are you?”

“Ella.”

“I ran facial recognition, but you don’t exist online.”

She reaches for the watch again, but I pull it away. “I don’t have time for social media,” she snaps.

“But you’re not even tagged in friends’ social media. ”

“I don’t have time for those either.”

Jesus, if we keep up this verbal tennis, I’m going to snap and fucking kiss her again.

“Except for Cheezy.”

Her expression sours. “Yeah, except for him.”

I don’t take my eyes off her. “Who are you?”

“I’m no one.”

“Oh you’re someone and I’m going to find out who?—”

She turns her head slightly, and the light bounces onto the side of her face that had been cast in shadow until now.

That’s when I notice the bruise on her cheek—a fist-sized bruise that certainly wasn’t there earlier tonight. I zero in on the swollen red lump and feel the darkness unfurl in my chest.

I take her chin in my fingers, and she flinches. “Who the fuck did this to you?”