FAZER LOGINBy the time I stopped speaking, my lungs felt squeezed tight and my face was on fire. James watched me in stunned silence. His eyebrows pulled together, studying the mess I'd just made as he tried to piece together what had triggered me.Then he exhaled."I don't know what you're talking about," he said, his voice still quiet, and entirely too calm for how fast my heart was racing. "There hasn't been a single moment where I thought of you as a liability."I pulled back, searching his eyes for any sign of a lie. "What about the cabin?""Not even at the cabin," he answered without hesitation.That actually took me aback that I couldn’t find my words."And second of all," he continued, leaning in just enough that I couldn't look away, "this has nothing to do with Celeste. If I’ve been bringing her up too much lately… then I apologize.”Only then did my brain finally catch up, and my whole face went up in flames.Oh my God.How completely childish and ridiculous must I have sounded? Sta
I shook my head, my fingers tightening around the rim as I readjusted the basket on my hip.“Don't worry about it,” I muttered, staring down at the pile of linen. “It’s not like I’m doing any real work anyway. My whole role here is literally just to sort it, fold it, and deliver it. It’s nothing.”Lia studied me for a second longer, then nodded.“Okay.”And with a brief, practiced smile, she backed off, leaving me alone with my pile of clean linens. I stood there swallowing down the truth, suffocating under the quiet weight of everything I was too proud to put into words.Then I turned and headed back inside.An hour later, I was still caught in the dull routine of sorting and folding when I stepped outside with a fresh basket. That’s when I saw them.James was standing near the edge of the rose garden, speaking with Noah. Noah looked like he had just finished a stretch of work with dirt on his hands, a few stray leaves stuck to his shirt, and was resting against the low stone border
And it was that exact thought that pushed me to make a move yesterday. I decided it was time to start going to my classes again.It was a practical decision, or at least that’s what I told myself. Good thing I hadn’t missed much. A few lectures at most which I could catch up on with some readings. I think being on campus, sitting in a room full of people who didn’t know anything about cabins or bounties or men with guns, might make me feel less like a ghost drifting through someone else’s house. At the very least, it would make me feel less lonely. Because that had to be the only fucking reason I kept noticing James the way I did.It was the only reason I cared about how his face changed around Celeste. The only reason the silence between us suddenly felt more than it should.Yeah, he was hot. Objectively. Tall, broad, that reserved way of moving that made everything around him feel significantly smaller. He’s handsome, have an annoyingly smooth voice, but that doesn’t matter beca
RILEY°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:・Why the fuck did I say that?I slammed my forehead against the stone pillar of the porch and squeezed my eyes shut, but the question kept spinning in my head, a toxic loop I couldn't break. Fuck!I’d sounded so blatantly, pathetically jealous it made my stomach churn. It wasn’t entirely my fault; the words had ripped out of my throat before I even had a chance to bite my tongue. But that look James gave me in the aftermath stayed burned behind my eyelids. A hot, prickling wave of shame flooded my cheeks, sinking down my neck and I squeezed my eyes shut and gritted my teeth against the heat.It wasn’t jealousy.At least that’s what I kept telling myself.If it was anything, it was envy.Bringing us to Madame Celeste’s house after the hotel mess was supposed to keep us alive, but watching the two of them together was its own kind of slow death. It was the way he positioned himself near her in a protective, but gentle way. It was the tiny, devastating shifts in his featu
Noah let out a low, breathy scoff, his lips twitching into a lopsided smile as he started strolling toward me. “You’re calling That a kiss?” he asked, taking an extra step forward. “That was barely a fucking glaze—a polite little brush of the lips at best.” He kept closing the space between us. “A real kiss leaves a mark,” he went on. “You take your fucking time with it. You lean into it, put your whole body into it, and make sure they feel every single second burning right down to their chest.” I swellowed. “You put some real fucking weight into it until they can't even remember how to breathe and you don't let up until every inch of them is trembling.” By the time the last word left his mouth, he was towering right over me. I had to tip my head back just to keep my eyes on him. I was so hyper-aware of him and the absolute lack of space between us, that my heart was practically thumping in my throat. “Want me to give you a quick lesson on how it's done?” he whispered. Oh God.
“That…” I started, but the rest of the sentence died in my throat. My heart was slamming so hard I could feel it in my ears.“Noah.”Mr. James’s voice cut across the garden from the direction of the house. Both of us turned. He was standing near the side door, one hand still on the frame.“Could you come for a moment?”Noah hesitated. His eyes flicked back to me for half a second before he looked toward James again.“Sure.”He stood, crushed the cigarette out against the stone, and walked away without another word.I stayed frozen on the bench, watching him go, heat still flooding my face so intensely I thought I might actually combust. Part of me hoped the ground would open up and swallow me whole right there among the roses.Why did I do that?Why?Why?Why?Have I completely lost my mind?I dropped my face into my hands and just sat there, elbows on my knees, trying to disappear into my own palms. The heat in my cheeks felt permanent and every second that passed only made the memor







