Twisted Lies (Twisted 4)

“Should I be worried?” The wind carried Stella’s sweet, teasing voice to my ears. She was still in the ocean, but the crew’s departure had broken the spell keeping her quiet. “You’re not planning on murdering me here now that you’ve scared off the crew, are you?”

“They were annoying me.” I walked closer to the shore until I reached the natural border demarcating dry sand from its damp, wave-tossed brethren. “And I didn’t scare them off. I merely requested they leave.”

“What would you have done if they hadn’t complied?”

A strong breeze whipped a curl across her face. She brushed it away with one hand while keeping her other arm over her chest.

She looked different here. Without the nearby threat of the stalker hanging over her head and the proximity of her family dragging her down, she was brighter, more carefree, with a playful sparkle in her eyes that outshone the emeralds around her neck.

“I would’ve let it go like the gentleman I am.” A smile worked its way onto my mouth at the way her brows formed twin arches of skepticism.

“You said you weren’t a gentleman.”

“I didn’t. You did.”

“And I was right.”

My smile morphed into a soft laugh that promised all sorts of ways I could further prove her right.

“Come here, Stella.”