Taking Something by Elizabeth Lee Page A

cousin were ready to leave. I was just happy that she wasn't ignoring me anymore. Even though I was sad that our conversation had to end, I considered it a win.

S ADIE WAS asleep when I finally made my way back to her place, which was two hours later than I'd planned. Gia and I had gotten so wrapped up in our conversation that I hadn't realized what time it was. I shouldn't have been surprised that when seven thirty rolled around I was awoken with a pillow across the face.
    “Where in the hell were you?!” Sadie cried out. I opened my eyes to see her hovering above me with a less than pleased look on her face. The morning light shining in the windows through her auburn hair made her look almost angelic, but her tone of her voice said she was anything but.
    It was time for damage control.
    “Good morning, beautiful,” I said sweetly, pulling her on top of me and peppering her neck with kisses. “I missed you last night, but you looked so peaceful when I got home that I didn't want to wake you.”
    “Don't even try it.” She rolled off of me. “God knows who you were with or what you were doing!”
    “Aww, Sadie,” I cooed, turning on my side to face her. “Are you jealous? It's cute.” I reached out and tapped the tip of her nose with my finger. She wasn't smiling. “Look, baby…” I scooted my way closer to her. “Yes, I was out late, but I wasn't doing anything that you need to worry about. I have Sadie Sinclair. Why would I ruin that?”
    “Oh, like I've never heard that before,” she scoffed.
    “I promise. I was with Landry,” I reminded her. Which was true. Sort of. “I was actually convincing him that you would be the perfect fit for this new duet he's working on. I've heard the song, Sadie. It's amazing. We got caught up in music talk. That's all.” I pressed my lips to hers when I saw her carefully thinking about what I was saying. “You're going to be amazing on it. And Landry invited us to dinner this weekend to discuss it.”
    I pressed my dick up against her thigh, hoping to spark those sexual desires she always seemed to let take over. I could screw my way out of this situation. I moved my hand underneath the tank top she was wearing and cupped her tit, squeezing it just the way she liked.
    “You better not be lying to me,” she mumbled between labored breaths. “If I find out—”
    “You won't,” I promised. “I got no reason to lie.”
    Not true. I have every reason to lie.
    “Just work, nothing else?”
    “Yep. All work.” I moved my lips to her collarbone and flicked my tongue against her skin.
    “And Landry wants to sing with me?”
    “He sure does. Thinks you're great,” I continued sweet-talking against her skin.
    “Okay,” she finally submitted, letting her lips find mine. “I believe you.” I continued to make her believe until I had her crying my name. I felt pretty damn good about my convincing ways. That is, of course, until I walked into the kitchen and remembered Gia was there. The look in her eyes was taunting me. Disbelief, disgust, disdain—pick your D-word. Any one of them would work.
    “You look like shit, Gia,” Sadie greeted her coldly.
    “Morning,” I said, my skin feeling like it was crawling. How could I have been so stupid? I knew the routine. I knew that Gia would be there. Just a few hours ago, I had been talking with her and now I'd just subjected her to hearing Sadie and me going at it.
    Dick move, Kline.
    Something about it felt so wrong, but what was I supposed to do? Tell Sadie that the reason I was really late was because I was hanging out with Gia? Getting murdered hadn’t been on my list that morning, but neither was the shame I was feeling for fucking Sadie with Gia in the other room.
    I didn't hear Gia rushing to a confession of her late-night activities. She wasn't telling Sadie that she'd spent the night explaining to me why the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was the greatest album ever made or that her