Page 4 of Death Kiss

‘We’re, uh, together. Liam is Ellie’s brother.’

My mother glares, while my father coldly assesses Liam’s dark jeans and T-shirt that expose the dark ivy tattoos and scars snaking up his forearms.

I find the scars hot.

My parents, however, look utterly mortified.

Restrained hurt crosses Liam’s face. I’ve neglected to tell him that I haven’t told my parents about us yet. Our strained relationship isn’t news to him, but keeping him a secret is. Not that I’m keeping him a secret, as such. My parents have a knack for ruining anything I enjoy in life to keep me in line with their expectations. And Liam won’t fit into their life plan for me. They’ll want me marrying one of their golf club chums’ sons. Guys with double-barrelled everything and egos inflated by their daddy’s bank balance.

They won’t understand. They’ll see him as too broken, not understanding how his broken pieces fit into my own and create something magical for us both.

And I don’t want them to.

I want them nowhere near what we have.

Reaching for Liam’s hand, I squeeze his fingers and step a little in front of him.

‘Thank you for coming,’ I say, brushing over the awkwardness in the way they taught me to. ‘It’s good to see you both.’

‘Katherine.’ My mother’s voice is stiff, like it physically hurts her to see me with Liam. ‘Let’s go somewhere we can talk. Alone.’

Father nods stiffly, and deep inside me, my guts twist. I’m a whole-ass adult, but beneath their glares I’m five again.

‘So sorry, we have dinner plans.’ Liam pulls me back against him and steadies a hand over my hip. It’s like a balm.

Swallowing, I take his escape. ‘The reservation is only for three people.’

‘It’s not even three o’clock,’ my father says, his eyes narrowing.

Ellie slides an arm through mine and gives a dazzling smile. ‘Kat and I have a whole makeup and hair thing booked. To celebrate. You know how it is!’

They don’t know at all.

I’m a former rich kid with a list of dickheads to kill with my hot boyfriend.

Thank fuck they know so little about who I really am.

Or what I’m capable of.

TWO

LIAM

Ilead Kat through the crush of students and happy families, trying my hardest to swallow down the wave of rejection that keeps ebbing in my throat. It’s not like I don’t know about her strained relationship, or the fact that I haven’t met her parents before, but it does nothing to quell the familiar harsh sting of feeling unwanted.

Am I less concrete in our relationship than I believed?

Swallowing down the acrid taste in my mouth, I wave Ellie off and head towards home, Kat’s hand clammy in my own.

Dark thoughts swirl.

The look of derision on Mr Elliott’s face.

The way Mrs Elliott scanned me from head to toe before her mouth turned down into a frown.

Their opinion, after the way they’ve treated Kat her whole life, should mean nothing. Deep down, in the way that abandoned kids often feel when they grow up, I’ve secretly been imagining that her family would change. That we’d have a chance to have more people who would be ours.

It’s a stupid hope.