Page 23 of Rapunzel Is Losing It

“I’m just wondering where you could have been all day.” She stabbed her fork into her food.

“Stop lying to me.”

“I’m not.”

“You think I was having dinner at a restaurant?” I pointedly stabbed my own potato.

“Where were you?”

“Do you want me to lie, too? Or do you want the truth?”

She swallowed, her throat bobbing, and for one flashing moment, I wanted to run my tongue up her neck and hear her whimper. My fork clattered to my plate. I had to get a fucking grip on myself.

“Lie,” Cordelia whispered.

I needed a safe topic. Something nice. Positive.

“I was out shopping for your birthday present.”

She snorted and shook her head. “That’s a terrible lie. But thanks for the tea cup in advance.”

I pushed my food aside and leaned forward. “Thirty is a big one. You might just get a whole tea set.”

“Ohgolly gosh, exactly what I always wanted.”

“Don’t pretend like you don’t have at least three eBay tabs open on your phone right now.”

“I do not.”

“Fine, show me your phone.” I held out my hand.

Her gaze flicked from my palm to her pocket, while she actually considered handing over her phone. In that moment, something shifted in her face. Without looking up, she mumbled, “Now tell me the truth.”

“I have to work for my uncle for a couple of months,” I replied without missing a beat.

Her entire body went rigid. It looked like she wasn’t even breathing. Maybe she’d convinced herself that I was off the hook. There was the very real possibility that she’d forgotten, over the last few months, that my uncle no longer deemed my employment here useful enough to leave me alone. Without her inheritance Cordelia was still rich, but thankfully not rich enough to be useful. Herusefulnesswasn’t something she worried about every hour of every day. That’s what I was here for.

“I won’t let him anywhere near you,” I added when her silence became eerie.

“I’m not worried about my safety,” she said, life flooding back into her limbs. Her spine straightened. Her shoulders rolled back. She leveled me with a hard, confident look. It was the same one she had when she was negotiating, talking to her legal team, and going to the mattresses for her foundation. “Are you involved in anything dangerous?”

I weighed my head from side to side to make the lie more believable. “No, not really.”

“Can you tell me what it is?”

“No.” Not that Petya would mind. It wasn’t going to be a secret for long anyway. Maybe telling Cordelia the truth would have been fair, but it also would have added to her worries. I couldn’t do that to her.

She knew that I had gotten out of the ring after one too many concussions prompted a CTE scan that showed just how fucked my brain really was.

She knew that I was one ill-placed hit to the head away from irreparable damage.

Telling her the truth would do her no good.

“Victor,” she sighed and pulled some hair in front of her chest, threading a strand through her fingers, “I kissed you. I practically threw myself at you.”

Thank god for Cordelia’s fast brain. The kiss. I would much rather talk about the kiss than about my uncle. “You were drunk.”

“That’s no excuse for my behavior.”