Page 54 of Whisper Pretty Lies (Lust & Liars #1)

Damon

Evan wanted to deny me, but fuck that shit. I help her put on her helmet. I climb on my motorcycle and wait for her to get on the back. As soon as she presses against me and wraps her arms around my waist, I take off.

We’ve got time, but if we’re late to our next class, no one’s going to fucking care. If they do, I’ll say she started her period and needed supplies. The office knows she lives with me now. Evan doesn’t question when I don’t head toward the school.

There’s a small grocery store that has a lot of organic crap not far from the burger place. I don’t give a shit if she eats it now, but I know she’s got shit happening after school. She needs to fucking eat.

We pull into the lot and I park.

“What are we doing here?” Evan steps off the bike like she’s been doing it for years.

“Getting you food.” I set the kickstand and climb off, removing my helmet and then hers.

Her brow furrows, but I take her hand and drag her behind me into the grocery store and over to the take-and-go section.

She stands next to me, still looking up at me incredulously. When I meet her eyes, her cheeks flush with color. She glances around to see if anyone is nearby. “I thought you were taking me somewhere to...”

I smirk. “Then you’d better hurry up and pick something if you want to get off too.”

“I didn’t—” She stops herself and blows out an exasperated breath. “I really was fine with the fries.”

“You have rehearsal after school. When’s the next time you’re going to be able to eat, Evan?” I study the food in front of me and reach for a salad. “This?”

She takes it from me and puts it back. Then she grabs a different one, along with a bag of nuts.

I take both from her and go to the self-checkout. She’s still trying to get her card out of her wallet as I finish the purchase.

“I could have bought it,” she says. Her blue-gray eyes meet mine like a stormy sky. I can almost see the thunder in them.

I ignore the kick in my chest she causes and steer her out of the store. I open a saddle bag and drop her food into it. She has her helmet on and her chin lifted. I buckle it for her and put my own helmet on.

“How far does the Bluetooth range go?” Evan asks as she climbs on behind me.

“Not far, and definitely not with buildings between us.” I start my motorcycle and ease us out onto the road. “You want to talk dirty to me?”

“Thank you for lunch.”

“That seems like something you could have said in front of Mia.” I noticed Evan’s discomfort at lunch. Like her friend was invading her territory. Usually I’m not keen on girls getting jealous, but I liked it on Evan.

I take off for school. We might actually make it back before the others.

“I would have been okay if you’d taken me somewhere else.” Evan’s voice is quiet and her fists clench into my shirt.

“Were you horny, little devil?” My cock twitches.

“Maybe.” Evan’s voice is breathy and her body presses close to mine.

“One of these days, I’m going to fuck you on my motorcycle. Somewhere quiet, where you can scream as loud as you want as you ride my cock.” Fuck, thinking about it is getting me hard. “What’s keeping you from letting us fuck that pussy, little devil?”

She doesn’t say anything.

We’re close to school now. When I pull in, Cam and Hawk’s bikes are already parked.

If I could be positive we wouldn’t be seen, I’d risk kissing her, but this can all be explained away.

We went to lunch with our history partners, and the food wasn’t appealing to Evan.

So we went to the grocery store to get her food for later.

Nothing nefarious in that statement, except the fact I want to bury my cock wherever Evan will let me put it. Mouth, thighs, pussy, ass. It doesn’t matter. I want them all, but will settle for whatever she’ll give me.

Even if she wants to dole it out piecemeal.

After we dismount and store the helmets, I get her food out of the saddle bag and hand it to her. When we walk into school, people are hurrying to their next class.

When we reach the hallway where she needs to turn to go to Anteros, she lifts those pretty eyes up at me like she really wants a kiss. I’d drag her into the nearest closet if I thought we could get away with it, but there are too many people around.

“Later, little devil.”

EvanAnn

“Babe.”

Wincing, I stop gathering my things after our seminar on dialects ends and look up at Chase. I came into class almost as soon as the final bell rang. Chase had a seat on the other side of the auditorium, but Mia had saved me a seat near her.

“Hey,” I say and lift my books against my chest.

“Where were you for lunch?”

Fuck, I forgot to text him. “Mia and I went out with our history partners to discuss our project for class. I meant to text you.”

He straightens. “Who are your history partners?”

“Hawk and Damon.” Mia smiles. “But this is the only time we’ll be going off campus.”

“You went off campus with Hawk and Damon?” Chase gives me a once-over, and now I’m glad Damon didn’t decide to take me somewhere to ravish me, because I would have looked it.

I shrug and turn to walk to our table read. “We needed to discuss the project.”

“Are you sure they aren’t targeting you for something, babe?” Chase puts his arm around my shoulders and drags me into his side.

I cough violently and he steps away from me. “Why would they target me?”

Chase rubs the back of his neck before shaking his head. “I don’t know. I just don’t like them paying you more attention than normal.”

Now that I know he’s the reason Damon got hurt, I recognize the twinge of guilt.

Mia laughs. “We have a project with them. It’s not like Evan snuck off to have sex with them.”

I cough again to hopefully account for my reddening cheeks. I didn’t sneak off to have sex with them, but I did sleep in Damon’s bed twice this weekend—naked the second time—and I’ll probably get off a few times before bed tonight.

“You should get some cough drops, babe.” Chase now has two feet between us.

I push open the door and Hawk smirks as we walk in. “I’ll get some when I go home tonight.”

“You’re going to get some when you go home, Annie?” Hawk’s smile turns lewd.

Get some. Ha, ha. I should tell Hawk to stop saying shit like that in front of my boyfriend.

“Cough drops. For my cold.” I arch an eyebrow at him.

He steps closer and puts his hand on my forehead. “You don’t feel sick to me.”

His green eyes twinkle down at me.

“Hey, we should run lines. Since we’re mortal enemies and all that.” Chase comes up beside me and Hawk.

I pull away to go to the head of the table, where Keira sits, and set my stuff down beside her. She already has the nameplates and scripts set up around the table.

“Thank you.” I sit down.

She shrugs. “I was here early with Hawk Wilker. Alone. I had to do something.”

Nervous energy. I get that. Every time I’m near one of the Devil’s trio it hits me too.

Chase and Hawk stand together talking. Mia throws heart eyes at Hawk, but he seems oblivious. After a few seconds of being ignored, she comes over and sits next to me.

“Are you okay?” She puts her hand on my arm. “I wasn’t sure where Damon was taking you, but it didn’t look good.”

“He knows I’m vegetarian, so he wanted to make sure I had food since rehearsal starts after school.

” There are so many holes in that, but hopefully, Mia doesn’t poke at them.

It’s the truth, but why would Damon care if I ate and how would he know I’m a vegetarian?

Maybe he’d know about rehearsal through Hawk, but it’s all a pretty flimsy house of cards.

“That was sweet of him.” Mia smiles.

Keira’s eyebrows go up as she looks at me. She knows better. Damon is not sweet, but hopefully she keeps that to herself.

“So, I know we have rehearsal tonight, but maybe we can grab a coffee after?” Mia leans in. “I have to tell you about the party and my weekend.”

I take a drink from my water bottle. I hope I can pretend it’s all new information and I didn’t see her take a guy’s cock in the ass. Though I might ask for pointers. “Yeah, we can do that.”

The room fills with my actors, and they all find their way to the table and their spot. Mia stands to go find her seat, which is next to Mark Green. He smiles at her and shakes her hand as they introduce themselves.

Crystal sits next to Chase, since their characters are married. And Sophia sits next to Hawk. He leans over to say something to her and she giggles.

None of this is new. Hawk flirts with everything in a skirt. We’re just lucky the guys don’t wear kilts at this school. But this churning burn in my stomach is new. I have no legitimate claim on Hawk. Or Cam or Damon, but we have an agreement.

Seeing them act normal is going to kill me.

I stand and clear my throat to get everyone’s attention. “Before we get started, I just want to congratulate all of you for being chosen to be part of the production. And I’m really excited to see what we can make together.”

We manage to keep the read through to the time we have for today. Keira helps me pass out schedules. They’ll also be emailed.

“We want to be off-book in three weeks. Tech week will be on week eight, with the full productions the week after. If you have any conflicts, please resolve them prior to that week.” I stand at the head of the table.

“We have seven weeks to perfect this. If you can’t be at a rehearsal, please let me know ahead of time. All rehearsals are mandatory.”

I look around at the faces at the table and breathe.

“We have rehearsals starting after school. Check the breakouts, because if you aren’t in the scene you don’t need to be here.

You are always welcome to come and observe so long as you don’t distract the actors.

I can’t wait to pull this together with you.

I’ll see you in two days for our next full cast meeting. ”

The bell goes off at the perfect time. Hawk stands and walks over to me. My heart quickens. I managed to shift him to the back of my mind.

Mia and Chase are also heading my way. Hawk gets there first.

“Hey, I need to talk to you about something.” Hawk gestures and turns to look at both Mia and Chase. “It’s kind of personal. Do you mind?”

I glance at Mia and Chase who step away, but are clearly still in hearing distance. Hawk lifts an eyebrow and Keira clears her throat.

“There’s the sound booth.” She gestures toward the door.

“Perfect.” Hawk takes my elbow and guides me that direction. I yank my elbow away and open the door.

He steps in and I follow, closing the door behind me. A window faces out into the room. While this isn’t the black box room, it’s a smaller version of it. Brandt and I will be swapping rooms every other day for rehearsals. Each is fitted with a sound room.

Hawk glances toward the window and turns his back to it. “What did Damon do to you?”

I arch my eyebrow. I don’t know what I thought he was going to say, but that wasn’t it. “Why?”

Hawk steps toward me, but I cross my arms and glance out at the remaining people who are here for rehearsal, including Mia and Chase.

“Because Damon can be a dick.”

I laugh a little, because he’s not wrong. “He took me to a grocery store to get food so I wouldn’t starve this evening. Don’t you have to get to hockey practice?”

“I can be late.” Hawk glances over his shoulder. His green eyes darken when he looks back at me. “Cam said he likes the new look.”

My eyes widen, but I know they can’t hear us out there. “Not here. Okay? We can’t play here. This production means the world to me and I’m not going to risk it for whatever this is between us.”

He nods. “That’s fair. But we need to find somewhere it’s safe for you to let down your guard, baby girl. We can’t have you wound so tight all the time.”

My mouth opens. Is he talking about...? He wets his lips. My pussy clenches because his mouth and tongue are perfect.

“I’ll see what I can find.” I open the door and step out of the too-small space because I’m about to overheat.

“Thank you, director.” Hawk bows to me before gathering his stuff and heading out.

He’s going to be trouble.