Cruel Money (Cruel 1)

He chuckled. “Sometimes, it feels like it.”

“Well, I’d never be opposed to seeing a library.”

I leaned my hip into the railing and smiled up at him. He really was incredibly handsome. And it was hard not to smile around him with his easy demeanor and charm. If I’d met him first, I might have even been interested. But that wouldn’t be possible now. He and Penn were best friends. Not a good idea by any stretch of the imagination.

But especially not because I couldn’t seem to stop comparing them in my head. Lewis’s easygoing ways. Penn’s intensity. Lewis’s strong jaw and quick smiles. Penn’s penetrating looks and magnetism.

Okay, I needed to stop. It wasn’t like I was going to hook up with either of them. So, this compare and contrast was going nowhere.

“I’d be happy to show you,” Lewis said.

He gestured back inside, and I followed him down two floors and into his father’s private suite. It didn’t occur to me until we were there that this probably looked really bad to everyone else. Why else would I go alone to the private cabin?

I doubted anyone would guess it was to see his father’s library collection. Only a writer would go to see someone’s library and not consider the enormous dark, wooden bed in the other room.

“I am thoroughly impressed,” I told Lewis as I scanned the walls covered in books. I couldn’t imagine what his house must look like if this was just on his yacht.

“Yeah. My dad is a bit of a collector. Comes with the publishing side of the business, I think.”

“He has good taste. Dickens, Wilde, Austen…oh, and one of my personal favorites, Huxley.”

“Brave New World?” he guessed. “Let me guess you love the symbolism?”

“I do.” I slipped the book off of the shelf. I leafed through the pages, remembering all the joy this novel had brought me when I first read it in high school.

“That’s one of Penn’s favorites, too.”

I snapped the book shut. “Of course it is.”

“You know, he’s not a bad guy.”

“I’m sure he’s not,” I said as I replaced the book on the shelf.

“I hear the sarcasm in your voice,” Lewis said. He plopped down into a chair and crossed his leg at the ankle. “You have to get to know him. I don’t know what happened with you in the past, but he’s not the same guy he was.”

“Maybe he’s not,” I said carefully. “Why are you defending him?”

“He’s my best friend. I’ve known him my whole life. He’s had a lot of ups and downs. He’s had it harder than you’d think.”

“I don’t need his sob story.”

Lewis chuckled and reached for me as I moved to step past him and out of the room. He grasped my hand and tugged me closer to him. “Don’t get all heated. I’m not saying you have to fuck him or anything. I’m saying you don’t have to glare in his direction every time he says something.”

“I don’t glare,” I said softly.

Lewis arched an eyebrow. “Don’t you?”

“And here I thought you were coming on to me,” I said. “But maybe you’re coming on to me for Penn?” I couldn’t keep the laugh from escaping my lips.

Lewis stood, and for a second, I thought he might kiss me. He had this look in his eye that I’d seen before on a dozen guys. But then it vanished, and he smiled. “I was just showing you the library. Come on. Let’s catch up with everyone else.”

He was the first out of the room, and I followed him in confusion. Lewis was a bit of an enigma. In fact, all of them were. I couldn’t seem to put my finger on who any of them were beyond what was showing. On some level, I thought that they were really being themselves because they were together. But they never seemed to relax completely. As if secrets and lies were so ingrained in who they were, they could never escape them.

We were almost back to the swimming pool when we came upon Penn standing alone on the deck. His eyes landed on the pair of us, and something passed so swiftly across his face that I didn’t even catch what it was. But Lewis nodded at him and then hastily moved past.

Penn held out his hand, as if to stop me.

“What?” I asked. Venom was in my voice, and Lewis’s comments in the library came back to me. Maybe I did glare at Penn when we were together. I sighed and met his gaze, trying to keep the anger out of my tone. “Did you need something?”

“What were you two doing?”

“I wanted to see the library.”

Penn’s eyebrows jumped up his face. “Is that so?”

“Yes. Lewis was kind enough to show me.”

“Mmm,” he murmured.

Obviously, he didn’t believe me. Whatever. I didn’t have to answer to him.