Page 308 (1/2)

I felt the knife twist in ether Why she was so adaive herself toso freely, but needed to know I could be reed to it without thinking it through But holding her like this, knohat she had been through, I didn’t want another woman I wanted this one

But there was a lie between us My hand The one thing that had brought us together was the lie I couldn’t tell her

“What if Ben presses charges? What if those pictures go viral? It’sstarted all over again

She had a point, but I wasn’t thinking about those things when Ben approached our table All I could think about was protecting Lennon I’d protect her fro I’d usehurt

“Give me Ben’s number”

She sniffed “What?”

“Give et this taken care of”

She walked over to her clutch and pulled out her phone “Here”

I hit send and waited for the fucker to pick up

He answered quickly “You can’t seriously date that monster, Lennon”

“This is the monster,” I responded

“You could have broken my jaw, asshole”

“Yeah, and a lot more” I had to tone it down This wasn’t the way out of a scandal “Look, I’ize And to see how I can assist with your recovery”

“You mean pay me off?” Ben jeered

“If that helps your jaw”