Page 30 of Whisper Pretty Lies (Lust & Liars #1)

EvanAnn

This is the moment. I could run, or I could stay here. It’s a choice. Two rather sucky options, but it’s my choice.

I have no idea why these guys are suddenly interested in me. Maybe they’re fucking with me. Maybe I did something they think needs to be corrected. I could leave right now and never find out. Things will remain the way they are.

We’ll keep circling each other, or they’ll give up when they don’t get whatever they want from me. Chase and I will continue as we are. My play will move forward. Everything I want this year will be in my grasp.

Or I can sit down and find out some version of the truth. At least, Damon’s truth.

I’m so fucking curious about him. I’ve watched him for years. The pattern rarely changes for most people. But it does for him. His moods fluctuate.

Maybe that’s why I’ve always been fascinated with him. I can’t read him. I can’t figure out his motivation, what drives him. Yes, hockey, obviously. His friends. Girls, there have been plenty.

But there are things that don’t follow the pattern.

That make me question everything I think about him.

He’s an abnormality. Sometimes, a girl will approach him and he’ll give her the attention she seeks, and other times he’ll push her away.

He’s brilliant, but he doesn’t always do well in classes, but not because he doesn’t understand or isn’t interested.

What does he want? Does he even know?

“Come on, Evan.” He smirks like he knows I’m going to run away. “Aren’t you curious?”

With every fiber of my being. And maybe that will be where all of this goes wrong. Damon draws my attention when he’s in the room. I can feel him like a buzzing in my skull.

I’m aware of the other two. They’re not simple either. And the more I learn about them, the clearer the shape of their character becomes. But it also muddles my brain because the curiosity grows as I learn more about them, like I’m ravenous and everything I learn makes me hungrier. I want more.

I take a breath and sit, leaving some space between us, determined to unravel the truth.

“That’s it, little devil,” Damon says it so softly I barely hear him.

Before I can question him, the TV springs to life. The footage is grainy and green, like it’s a night camera. Damon’s face is the focus of the camera. I’m captivated, but as he steps back, my living room at our old house comes into sharp focus behind him.

My heart stops. I suck in a breath. He was in my house? And planted a camera? When? How long ago?

My heart pounds, but I’m frozen in place. The footage ends, then there’s another view of Damon as he turns a camera on. He backs away with a smirk and my bedroom comes into focus—including me, asleep in my bed.

“What the fuck?” A tingling sweeps up my neck and through my head, leaving me light-headed. I move to stand up.

Damon’s hand clamps down on my thigh, branding me with his heat and holding me in place on the couch. “Don’t worry. I didn’t do anything to you.”

“You put a camera in my room and saw me sleeping.” My cheeks are hot as I return my gaze to the television and the image of me with my nightgown hitched up around my hips and the sheet down around my ankles. This is so invasive. My heart claws up my throat.

My whole being is on fire. I can’t take this away from him. He’s seen this. He was with me when I was at my most vulnerable.

Not when I was in this house, but when I thought I was safe from him.

He was in my room and I didn’t know it. He could have done anything to me. I register he’s still touching me now.

My pulse pounds like I’m already running away. The heat of his hand on my bare thigh pulses through me. But I’m spinning so hard I can’t focus on his touch.

I turn to look at Hawk and Cam. “Did you know?”

“No,” Cam says. His attention stays on the TV and part of me wants to get up and cover my image. It’s bad enough Damon saw me like that, but he’s sharing it with Hawk and Cam. Who else does he intend to show this to? My heart stops.

Hawk runs a hand through his hair. His green eyes meet mine and he shakes his head.

Oh, fuck. The kiss.

“When is this?” I turn back to Damon and grab his wrist to try to remove his hand from my thigh, but he grabs tighter, not budging. I’m not strong enough to move him.

“Worried, Evan?” He leans into me. His blue eyes the only thing I can focus on as my body loses its fucking mind. His scent is overwhelming, dark and earthy. My insides soften as my gaze slips to his lips before returning to his eyes.

Heat pulses through me, making my pussy ache and grow damp. My thighs clench together against his fingers. His gaze drops to where I’m squeezing his fingers. He wets his full lips and lifts his eyes to mine.

Fuck. His blue eyes have always drawn me in. They never looked real. Up close, I can see the flecks of gold and black mixed in the pools of blue. I could drown in them. His fingers squeeze my thigh, making me gasp. Not in pain or fear, but something much more primal.

He smiles and his gaze drops to my parted lips. Some of my common sense returns. I snap my mouth shut, pressing my lips together into a thin line.

“Let me go,” I say as sternly as I can. He ignores my request.

“This has been my favorite show.” He turns back to the TV and I follow his gaze. It flicks to a new scene. I have a towel around me as I walk through the living room and it cuts to me in the bedroom, pulling things out of my drawers.

No. Oh god, bury me now.

I want to take his phone and throw it at the TV. Stop this from happening, but he’s already seen it all. My god, he’s seen all of me. No one has seen me naked before. That should have been my choice.

“Stop!” I lurch to grab at his phone or charge the TV to block it or turn it off, but he holds me in place.

When I drop the towel on the screen, I close my eyes, humiliated.

He filmed me in my home. And now he’s sharing these private moments with his friends.

No one’s laughing, but they must be making fun of me.

How could they not, when those beautiful girls throw themselves at them?

I’m nothing compared to them. I want to run away, but my legs feel weak beneath his touch.

He has a show to put on, and I’m captive until he decides to release me. I just want this to end. But I know it won’t. I try to steady my breathing and to stop the tears burning at the back of my eyes.

Damon’s breath against my ear startles my eyes open. “I wanted you to know that I saw everything, little devil. Remember when I made you show me yours, because I showed you mine? I believe in equality.”

The horror of this moment is intensified by the lust pouring through my veins. How can I even want to be in the same room as this guy? He hates me and I want him. How fucked up is that?

On the screen, I’m mostly dressed now. He’s watched me most of this week. Every second of my life documented for him. It’s been edited, but there must have been hours of me sitting and working.

“Don’t worry, little devil. They haven’t seen this yet.” His hand squeezes my thigh and his thumb strokes over the sensitive skin on the inside of my thighs. I gasp as sparks light beneath his touch, shivering through me like an earthquake. “They haven’t seen you like I have.”

I can’t look away from the screen. The scene changes thankfully. It’s me studying in the living room.

“To be honest, I was hoping you’d have your boyfriend over.” When he says boyfriend, the word is filled with hate. “Give me some good footage of the two of you to convince you to do whatever I want. Imagine my surprise...”

I swallow, remembering this night as past me rises from the couch and heads to the door. After a few minutes, Cam follows me in.

“What the fuck, Cam?” Hawk asks. He sounds surprised. What does he think I did with Cam?

“You guys were busy. I didn’t want to go home.”

I turn to look at Cam and he shrugs.

“Nothing happened,” he adds.

Damon’s hand slides higher on my thigh and I try to hold it back, tightening my hands on his wrist. On the screen, Cam and I sit on the couch as I work and he plays on his phone.

I disappear into the kitchen, and when I come back, we talk for a few minutes.

We go into the kitchen and return with pizza. I’m glad there isn’t sound.

“How fucking domestic.” Damon’s still right next to my ear. His breath is warm, caressing my skin.

His face is so close to mine, if I turned my nose would brush his. I don’t dare turn. My skin buzzes with his closeness.

“What would your boyfriend think?” He tsks in my ear and a little shiver runs through me.

Not of dread. No, that would be better. That would make sense.

This shiver is warm and makes my body soften.

When I think about Chase, I know I’m not a good girlfriend.

That guilt has been eating at me all day.

I know what Damon has to show us next. But no one is laughing at me, so I tamp down the wild need to flee and realize I have an opportunity.

The kiss has already happened. Damon has watched me kiss Hawk.

Only Cam doesn’t know about the kiss. It’s recorded.

I swallow, but I’m curious how it all went down.

The replay in my mind of the kiss with Hawk is clouded by my emotions. As someone more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it, I want to see how it looked from an observer’s standpoint. Because frankly, that kiss wrecked me.

“I’m not ashamed of what I’ve done.” I wish my voice hadn’t trembled.

“Aren’t you, Evan?” Damon’s other hand brushes my hair away from my ear, sending sparks cascading through me from every brush of his fingers against my skin. “I don’t think Chase would like this next part.”

The scene changes to Hawk carrying me in piggyback style.

I try to ignore the presence of Damon’s dark energy surrounding me and focus on the scene unfolding with the critical eye of a director.

Ignore the fact that this is a weak moment, one Damon could use to blow up my life, because I never confessed to Chase.

Past Hawk sits with me and then stands. Takes off his helmet before dropping to his knee before me. He takes off my helmet and then he’s kissing me. It lasts both longer and shorter than I remembered.

I pull away first, but it’s obvious I was kissing him back. My stomach knots.

I should have told Chase what happened and asked him for forgiveness, but then what would have happened during play rehearsal next week? The tension between Chase and Hawk could overwhelm the whole production.

I don’t think either man would fight over me, but there’s the sense of honor when someone makes a move on your girlfriend that might come into play.

“Should I show them what you did later that night, little devil?” Damon’s words make my skin flush hot, but those words are also enough for me to snap out of this.

I push him away and he finally releases me. I hurry to the television and turn it off. He watched me. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I press my hands to my forehead unable to turn around and face them. What do I do now? What can I do now? I’m ignoring what Damon saw me do later that night. I can’t handle knowing he invaded my privacy like that.

“Here’s what’s going to happen, Evan.” Damon stands and closes in on my back. He doesn’t touch me, thankfully.

I don’t think I could handle that right now. I drag in a breath. How did I get here?

“Why?” The word rips out of me. Because none of this makes any sense. Tears sting my eyes. They annoy the fuck out of me, because I can handle this.

This could blow up my life or I can get ahead of it and figure out what the fuck he wants. Because if he wanted to blow me up, he wouldn’t have shown me this. He would have sent it to everyone in school, or just Chase.

No, he wants something from me. He caught me on film because he thinks he can control me with it.

I swallow that bitter pill and force down the tears. My arms drop to my sides. When I turn and look up at him, he watches me like I’m a feral animal he’s backed into a corner. And damn, do I feel like prey trapped by the predator.

“You wouldn’t have shown me this if you didn’t want something.” I don’t dare look past him at Hawk or Cam. Nothing in the video would blow up either of their worlds. There’s no audio.

Hawk might be embarrassed by my rejection, but it could be edited to not show that part, leave it up to the viewer to decide what happens next. I lift my gaze to Damon’s, tipping my head back since he’s so much taller than me.

I try not to think of him seeing my hand in my panties later that night. I won’t be embarrassed by relieving a need. Because I know he probably masturbates more than I ever have.

I raise an eyebrow. “What do you want, Damon?”

He smirks. “Everything.”

“Evan?” My mom’s voice breaks the spell like cold water drenching me. I step away from Damon, like coming up for air. He backs up, but I’m sure this isn’t over.

“Down here, Mom.” I glance at the others before heading toward my mother’s voice. Cam and Hawk both seem content to let this play out.

Damon’s voice echoes in my head. Everything.