Dirty Little Secret

Chapter 2: A Lie

Emma's POV

    The night continues on uneventfully, but we all enjoy ourselves non the less. Dinner was delicious; it always is when Amber cooks. I think we each had at least 2 bowls before laying out across the living room, completely stuffed. After recovering from such a filling and satisfying dinner, we sit in a circle on the living room floor and play a few board games. As usual, Liam and Noah kick ass and Amber and I are pissed off losers, but they have us laughing again in no time. Finished with the games, we decide to watch some late night shows, mostly talking to each other with the t.v as background noise. It's about 11:30 when Amber and Liam decide it's too late for them.

    "Ugh.. Man.. I'm still feeling like crap, so I think we are going to head off to bed for the night." Liam stands from the small couch and takes Amber's hand, helping her up. "We'll see y'all in the morning. Don't stay up too late and use protection." he jokes as he walks from the room with Amber. Noah picks up a pillow from beside us and throws it at the back of Liam's head, hitting him just hard enough to knock him off balance. We both laugh, Liam grabbing the pillow up and throwing it back before ducking onto Amber's bedroom with her.

    "So beautiful, how was your day?" Noah casually asks now that we are finally alone for the night, his hands are rubbing up and down my leg gently. 

    "It was good, just busy like normal. I had to run a few errands for my dad while he is out of town, but that's really it." I lay my head on his shoulder, tracing random patterns on his chest with my fingers. "How was your day?" he begins to answer as his hand makes another trip up my leg, his pinkie finger catching the hem of my sweatpants slightly revealing the bottom of one of my beaten legs.

    "Where did all this come from?" he asks raising the pant leg a little higher, examining the bruises forming on my pale skin, his brows pulled together at the center of his forehead. "I know for sure these weren't here when I saw you yesterday. What kind of errands were you running?" I quickly push down my pant leg and move from his lap before answering him.

    "Come on baby, you know how clumsy I am. I decide to go for a walk today when I finished with my stuff for my dad and I tripped and fell over my own feet and hit some guy ridding a bike. We got all tangled up and I got a couple bruises and scratches. Nothing major though, I promise." I lie to him, but I've been lying for so long, I've become a professional, so I know he will believe me.

    "If it's nothing major, then why did you wince earlier when I moved you on my lap?" he asks skeptically, unsure if he can believe my story.

    "Because my legs were sore from the fall and all the walking I did today. I promise baby, I'm totally okay." he seems to buy the story now, so I lean over and kiss him gently on the lips, but it quickly turns into something more. We sit wrapped up in each other for a few minutes,hands roaming each other bodies and excitement growing for both of us, eventually pulling away to breathe.

    "Why don't we take this to the room babe?" he asks, sliding his hands around my hips to my backside and grabbing it firmly in his hands. My body is screaming yes and I my want and desire for him is as strong as ever, but I can't risk him seeing all the marks covering my body and questioning me further. I hate lying to him, to everyone, but it's the only way to keep them safe and if he starts to look into why I am all beaten up, he'll end up finding out more than he needs to.

    "I'm really tired tonight baby, but I promise I'll take care of you tomorrow." I wink at him as I climb up from the couch and turn to walk down the hall to my room. Across the way from my room, I hear giggling and then moaning coming from Amber's room and quickly dart into my room to avoid hearing anymore. I stay in my sweatpants and hoodie, crawling into bed and wait for Noah to join me. A minute or two passes and he finally wanders in, a handful of cookies, and gets into the bed beside me.

    "Sorry babe, I went to the kitchen to get me a little midnight snack. I was going to hang around in there and eat it, but I could hear way too much happening over there." he jabs his thumb in the direction of Amber's room. I laugh lightly at his disgusted facial expression before reaching over and snatching a cookie from his hands. "Hey now woman! Those are mine!" he tries to grab it back, but I shove the entire thing in my mouth as fast as I can.

    "Not anymore" I try to say around a mouth full of crumbled cookie. I grin widely at him, bits of cookie falling from my mouth when I do. This pushes him to laugh causing half chewed cookie to fall from his mouth as well. We finish up eating the little midnight snack and I get out of the bed and go to my closet to grab out a clean blanket and sheet for the bed. He steps out of the room to the bathroom while I clean our mess off the bed and put fresh linens on it for us. Just as he is walking back in the room, I am curling back under the blankets, waiting patiently for him to join me. I always seem to sleep better when I have his arms wrapped around me or at least have him in the same bed as me. He comes over and climbs in next to me and I roll to my side letting him move in behind me and wrap his soft, yet muscular arm around my waist and pull me back, tight against his chest. I feel his lips press to the top of my bed.

    "I love you E." he whispers into my ear before he drops his head to the pillow.

    "I love you more, baby." I whisper back. Seconds later the sound of his soft snoring fills the room and I try to focus on the noise to help me relax and fall asleep myself, but I don't seem to be having much luck. I lay as still as possible, not wanting to wake him. The events of the day play through my head and I know I need to come up with a good story to tell my dad because he will not be happy to know I did not take care of myself properly on the delivery today. If I'm being honest, I'm not even sure that the files got delivered like they were supposed to. I had my weapon on me, but the guy who attacked me came out of nowhere. This "business partner" of my dad's must be shady or something because it is never advertised that I will be doing anything alone and only people who work with us know this detail. 

    The attack this afternoon, was well thought out and the attacker knew my weak spots too well, which can only mean, an inside man was doing the job. I know my dad will think the same thing, but first I have to get through the ass chewing. Sometimes I hate being his only child and having to take over the "family business" because this is really not what I want to do with my life. It's not that what we are doing is illegal or harmful to good people, in fact, it's the complete opposite. We help save a lot of people from a world full of monsters, it's just sometimes dangerous work and it all has to stay quiet, so I find myself lying to the most important people of my life almost everyday. If I had my choice, I'd be on a stage somewhere in a big city, singing for millions of people cheering my name. I have to be realistic though. No matter how talented I may be or how bad I want it, family comes first and since it's always been just me and my dad against the world, I can't abandon him now.

    My mind is spinning in vicious circles as I try to think through all this madness and decide how to approach things with my dad. I'm not sure when, but at some point I think myself into a hole and eventually fall asleep. Not a restful sleep by any means, but at least I will have a couple hours of shut eye to rely on tomorrow. Trust me when I say, I am a monster from the pits of hell when I don't get any sleep.