Page 112 of Secret Obsession
Flirting with another girlandhe missed her competition?
“He forgot?”
She shrugs and looks away. “I didn’t stick around to ask.”
Cheer her up. Another impulse, another thought I shouldn’t indulge.
But I do.
I hold my hand out between us, palm up, and wiggle my fingers. “Give me your hand.”
“Why?”
I give her a look, and she meets my eyes for the first time. She really examines me. And then she notices my black eye and the cut across my eyebrow, and her teeth dig into her lower lip. I know what she’s thinking—it isn’t a normal hockey fight injury. We’ve sustained plenty of those this year.
This is different.Thisone happened in the locker room after the game, when I finally blew up at my brother. It’s been months since this bet started, and it was void the moment Greyson backed out of it. But Knox doesn’t fucking care. He fought back, amped up on adrenaline.
We’ve gotten into plenty of scraps before, and I’m sure we’ll get into more. So this time, I don’t tell her where my injuries came from, and she doesn’t ask.
But she does put her hand in mine.
I pull it closer and turn her hand palm-up.
“What are you doing?” she finally asks.
I grin. “Reading your palm.”
“You know how to do that?”
No, but I’m not about to ruin it. Now that I’ve got her hand in mine, I don’t ever want to let it go. But I can’t really saythatwithout bursting this bubble we’ve found ourselves in either. So, I let my body stay hyper-aware of hers, and I run my finger down one of the creases in her palm.
She shivers.
I suppress my smile. “Have you had your palm read before?”
“No.” Her voice is quiet. She leans forward a little, her shoulder bumping mine.
“Well, this one…” I trace it again, just to see if she’ll shiver again. If it tickles her, or if it’sme. I pray it’s the latter. “This is your head line. It says you’re smart and brave.” I glance at her out of the corner of my eye.
Her attention is fixed on her palm, but I can tell that she’s skeptical.
Onto the next one. “Your life line is supposed to tell you if you’re going to live a long and happy life.”
“Am I?”
“Of course. Well, it breaks apart there at the end, so you might be in for some suffering when you get older. I think you’ll be okay, though.” I hunch over her hand, then move to the top crease. “This is your heart line.”
“Does it say my great love will end in heartbreak?” Willow huffs. “Because that’s how it feels right now.”
Knox isnother great love.
“No.” I run my nail down the line, eliciting a beautiful shiver from her. “It says you’re destined to fall in love with me.”
She jerks back like I burned her, clutching her hand to her stomach. “That’s not funny, Miles.”
I keep my gaze steady on her face, although my heart is hammering against my ribcage.
“I don’t make the rules,” I say.
