Page 21 of The Lies Of Omission (Without Limits #3)

SIN

I f I thought that night when Theo broke into my pool house and all but begged me to make him feel in ways he’d never felt before would change anything between us, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Maybe it was naive of me to have thought that.

I didn’t expect declarations of love. I didn’t expect him to shout it from the fucking rooftops or throw himself into my arms at work.

But I did expect something to change .

A reply to my texts. A look. A nod. Basic human decency, minimum-effort acknowledgment that I hadn’t imagined it. That I hadn’t given him everything just to continue being treated like a secret that needed burying deeper than any celebrity scandal.

But no. Radio silence. Ice-cold, Theo-style emotional suppression. He ignored me like I was some stupid mistake that he was too rich and too legacy-bound to repeat.

And it hurt .

More than I wanted it to.

I told Thalia once I don’t let people in because they fuck you over. Their absence bruises worse than their presence ever did, and then, like some masochistic junkie, you poke at the ache over and over just to see if it still hurts.

Spoiler: it did.

I didn’t chase him. I didn’t beg. I watched him indifferently. But I wasn’t about to sit around and mope like some lovesick reject while Prince Upper-East-of-Fuck-You acted like I didn’t exist.

So I did what I do best. I acted out so he couldn’t ignore me, even if he wanted to.

It was a tried and tested method that worked on my parents until they’d had enough, but I knew it would work.

It wasn’t playing fair; I knew there was more going on than I was aware of, but I’d be fucked if I was made to feel like shit again just for existing.

“God,” Thalia groaned, smacking her gum as she leaned over the table, “you’re brooding again. Stop making that face. It’s scaring people.”

“My face is beautiful,” I mumbled, chin in my hands, slouched dramatically like I was auditioning for a tragic indie movie.

Claire raised a brow from where she sat, perfectly poised, latte in one hand, sunglasses perched like a crown. “Is this about him ?”

“No,” I said immediately.

“Uh-huh,” she deadpanned.

“So it’s just a coincidence you’ve worn eyeliner every day since he ghosted you like an emotionally constipated Victorian ghost?” Thalia cackled.

I didn’t answer. I just lifted my middle finger and took a long, aggressive sip of my iced coffee.

“Let it go,” Thalia offered. “He’s an Astor. They don’t do emotions. They do PR, scandal suppression, and generational trauma.”

“Yeah, well,” I huffed, slumping lower, “his PR can suck my dick.”

Claire grinned. “Wanna blow off some steam?”

I looked up. “That a euphemism or a plan?”

“A little of both.” She leaned in. “There’s a party down by the lake tonight. Think boats, bad decisions, and rich kids with no parents.”

Thalia perked up. “ Yes. I need chaos.”

“I need tequila,” I muttered. “And maybe a guy with bad tattoos.”

“We can arrange both.” Claire smiled sweetly.

I stood, the mask slipping back over my features like war paint. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get fucked up.”

“Fuck yeah! Now we’re talking.” Thalia bounced out of her seat and hauled Claire up into a kiss that could have been in a Hallmark movie.

“Ugh,” I snickered. “Love is gross.”

“Don’t be jealous, beautiful.” Thalia patted my cheek, her arm slung over Claire’s shoulder, holding her close. “We’ll pick you up in a couple of hours.”

I placed a cigarette between my lips and inhaled the thick smoke. “Cool. Where?”

“Down the road from your Aunt’s. There is no way I’m driving up to the house and having her report back to my father,” Thalia shuddered.

“He still getting on your case?”

“You know he is.” She rolled her eyes. “There is no way I’m marrying Archibald Harrington the Third.”

Claire’s complexion paled at her words, worry seeping in her bright gray eyes. She blinked away the tears that made them shimmer in the sunlight before Thalia saw.

My heart went out to her. I understood wanting something you knew you could never keep.

Instead of saying anything, I wrapped my arms around them and squeezed them until their giggles were echoing in my head as I drove back to Edelwood, wondering if there was anywhere else in town that I could stay.

The night smelled like weed, smoke and summer sweat. Music pulsed from Bluetooth speakers balanced on someone’s truck bed. Flames licked the sky from a bonfire where half of Brookhaven Ridge’s bored elite were gathered like moths.

I was already half-drunk, half-stoned, warm from the inside out, surrounded by bodies I didn’t care about and eyes that lingered for all the wrong reasons.

Which was exactly what I wanted. I wanted bad decisions. To make memories with the only two friends I’d ever really had. The night was young, and I was full of life, desperate to cleanse my head of memories that made me feel things I was certain I didn’t like feeling.

“I love this song,” Thalia squealed, pulling me into the makeshift dance circle. She spun once, then shoved me toward the center. “Go be a menace!”

I didn’t need telling twice. I danced. Not like someone trying to be watched. Like someone who didn’t give a fuck if he was. I let go and lived in the moment. Let the beat of the music move through me.

Shirt half unbuttoned. My hips moving in time with the beat. A guy with shaggy hair slid in behind me, hands bold and wandering, mouth brazen when he whispered something filthy in my ear.

I laughed and let him pull me closer. Leaned my head back on his shoulder and stared up at the sky before the stars started to spin in opposite directions. His hands wrapped around my waist, hips grinding against my ass.

Once, I would’ve been up for everything that he was angling for without thought of the consequences, only chasing sensation, release and a good time, but something held me back from following through. Not that I’d look too closely at it.

Before he got too far, I spun away and dragged a girl into my arms just because I could. I didn’t care who I was with, never had. I loved everyone for who they were. I loved them even more if they moved like liquid sin.

Bodies moved around me. Sweat-slick, alcohol-loose, glitter and sin on their skin. And I? I was fire. The catalyst.

Hours passed, and the moon rose high in the sky. I forgot why I was here. What I was running from and moved from dance partner to dance partner. I watched the girls moving to their own rhythm, lost in their own world.

Jealousy had never been my style. I was all for free love. But no matter who I lost time with, my eyes were always drawn back to them. And I yearned for the first time in my life to be somebody’s something. Their everything. Not just a passing fancy.

“Ugh, fuck,” I ground out as two big guys sandwiched me between them.

As the night had drawn on, I’d noticed the crowd changing around me.

It wasn’t just the young, rich crowd. The darker side of Brookhaven Ridge had come out to play in the shadows.

Maybe that was why the young elite of this town partied down here, because they wanted to sample the rougher side of life before slipping back into their perfect little lives.

I understood them because I had been one of them.

Until I wasn’t. And though a few months had passed since I was kicked out of my former life, I couldn’t say I missed it.

Yeah, working sucked. Living in my aunt’s pool house was shit, but I’d found in Brookhaven Ridge something I’d spent my life looking for—connection.

The guy behind me coasted a hand up my arm and sunk his fingers into my hair, tugging my head to the side, baring my throat to the smaller, younger guy covered in tattoos in front of me.

A wicked smile lit him up before he closed the distance between us and kissed the other guy over my shoulder.

“Fuck that’s hot,” I groaned, feeling them thicken against me almost at the same time.

They rocked and ground against me and sucked each other’s faces off. Even as their third wheel, I gave myself over to the moment, rolling my hips in time with them and the euphoric EDM that was blaring into the night.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. That’s when I felt it. That heat. That electric static crawling over my skin. My eyes fluttered open. Taking in everything and everyone around the lake.

Dark green eyes found mine like they’d been locked onto me for hours.

Theo-fucking-Astor.

He stood at the edge of the trees, just beyond the firelight. Shirt rolled to his elbows, fists clenched like he was trying to crush the bones in his hands. Eyes locked on me with something feral simmering behind them.

Possessive. Jealous. Mine. That’s what his gaze said. He wasn’t moving. Just watching . Like a man deciding whether to fuck me or fight me.

I smirked, slow and vicious, and let my fingers trail down the back of the shirtless guy still grinding against me. Then I lifted my eyes back to Theo’s—daring him.

Come get me.

His jaw flexed.

I tilted my head, challenging him. Waiting to see what he’d do.

He stepped forward once. Twice. Then turned and disappeared into the shadows.

But not before I saw the rage. The hunger. The way his control cracked just enough to let something real slip through. And it hit me like a second heartbeat in my chest.

I mattered. He felt it. Whatever we were—whatever we weren’t—he couldn’t ignore it forever. And I wasn’t going to let him. Not anymore.

Theo’s gaze followed me like heat sliding down my spine, even after he vanished into the dark. He thought that was the end of it? That he could ghost me for days, then show up, glare like I’d betrayed him, and vanish again like some fucking storm cloud?

No. No fucking way.

I stalked toward the makeshift bar someone had set up on the tailgate of a Range Rover, music thumping around me like a pulse. A girl with glitter under her eyes handed me a red cup, but I shook my head and pointed to the bottle of tequila instead.