Layers Off by Lacey Silks Read Free Book Online Page A

at least for the time being. Yet that scar on his upper lip that I’d split with a kick when we rolled down the hill always reminded me that his lips weren’t the perfect ones I sought.
    ~ . ~ . ~
    “Cindy Walker?” Julian’s question interrupted my memories.
    “Yeah, that was her name. You said you were going with her to her prom.”
    Julian reached for a square of milk chocolate and placed it in my mouth. As it began melting on my tongue, I lowered my shoulders and leaned my head back to savor the taste. When Julian popped a piece into his mouth as well, I couldn’t help but stare at the way he chewed it. The hazelnut crunched, echoing through his jaw.
    “Did you also know about the part where I had signed a contract to act as her guard there?”
    No, I didn’t know that part.
    “They paid you to take her? Julian, I’d never pictured you as an escort!” My voice was coated with nerves as I tried to lift the conversation. Had I done it again? Had I jumped to stupid conclusions when I shouldn’t have? Would it have made a difference – and I’d not only be with Julian but could have avoided scarring Tristan layers deep?
    “You know it wasn’t like that,” he said quietly.
    “I wish I had known it back then.”
    “Why?”
    His question caught me off guard. Bearing my feelings to him wasn’t what I’d intended, but I could be honest – I had to be. I couldn’t go back to my old ways.
    “Because I wouldn’t have thrown myself at Tristan.” I felt my cheeks heat. “We would have never gone out. I wouldn’t have pressed him to propose later on, or stabbed him.”
    “You went out with Tristan because I went with Cindy?”
    “I made out with Tristan that night. And then things sort of rolled from there.” I buried my face in my hands in embarrassment.
    “Don’t cover that beautiful face.” He removed my hands and tilted my chin upward to make me look into his eyes. They held comfort and not the disgust that I’d feared. Why had I thought he’d be angry? What was it about Julian that made him so understanding?
    “And here I thought all these years you preferred my brother,” he teased, smiling in that sexy lopsided way that spread joyful tingles through my entire body.
    I shook my head. “Not all the years.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You don’t remember, do you?”
    That night, two years after we’d met, was blurred for me too; but that was the one night from my life I wouldn’t forget – ever. So much had happened since then.
     

C HAPTER 6
     
    Manhattan - Six years earlier
     
    “Congratulations, boys! Cross Enterprises is in your hands now.” Mr. Cross shook Julian’s and Tristan’s hand. The staff around us clapped. Some whistles blasted through the room, which I imagined wasn’t part of a normal day’s work. But today was special. Julian and Tristan had worked for their father ever since I’d known them, studying at night, working out every morning, boxing on the weekends. Their schedules were so busy that Mr. Cross hired a private tutor for them both. I’d often wondered how they got through high school, but they did, with honors and grades high enough to earn them both full scholarships to NYU. Julian had just finished his business degree and was planning on starting his Masters that fall. Sometimes I wondered when they slept.
    I cracked my neck to the side for the umpteenth time that day, trying to enjoy the celebration. So far, nothing had worked. That morning, before the party, I woke up from another nightmare. It had been a while since I’d had one, but this one seemed too real, and I knew exactly what had sparked it. Last week our calculus teacher went on her maternity leave. The new sub had a unibrow that reminded me of the one man I didn’t want to remember, and it stirred unnerving feelings I longed to forget. A surge of disgust ran over my body. That day my science teacher at my old school touched me changed me forever – in some ways better than others. Or