Believing Lies by Rachel Everleigh

lack of talking was going fairly unnoticed. It wasn’t as if I was being mute; I just kept my input to a minimum. Yep, totally flying under the radar .
    “You’re exceptionally quiet, Princess,” Adam observed. I guess not as under the radar as I’d hoped.
    Don’t reply to the Princess comment. Don’t reply to the Princess comment. It’s exactly what he wants . “I told you not to call me that.” Shit. Failure .
    “And I believe I told you ‘No,’” he countered with a sly grin.
    Sophie looked between the two of us. “You’re coming with us tonight,” she said, pointing her fork in my direction. “And before you open your pretty little mouth to object, realize it wasn’t a question.”
    There were two ways I could approach this. Option One: Simply tell her I wasn’t going to go. That was the option I wanted to take because I really did not want to go to The Turning Point for drinks. Option Two: Just give in because we both knew that she would get her way eventually, no matter how much I protested. In the end, I went for the path of least resistance and took Option Two.
    “Fine.”
    “Really?” She looked surprised.
    “I thought it wasn’t a question, so why are you acting as if I had a choice?” Dammit, should have chosen Option One .
    Conner must have sensed my apprehension since he interjected with, “Excellent! You’ll have fun, Sienna. I promise.”
    I decided to just suck it up for one night. “Thanks, Conner. I’m sure I will.”
    Sophie beamed at my final agreement, knowing that once I told Conner I would be coming, I wouldn’t back out. “Thank you,” she mouthed to me.
    “Well, I guess I need to go get ready then,” I said to no one in particular and stood up to go change clothes and redo my makeup.
    “You look fine,” Adam stated blandly.
    “Gee, you really know how to make a girl feel pretty,” I huffed. “I want to look better than just fine since this is the first time I’m going out in weeks.”
    “I didn’t mean it that way.” He both looked and sounded sincere. “I meant that you already look nice, so you don’t need to do anything else to yourself.”
    “Thanks, I guess. But I still want to change my clothes. Besides, Sophie will take at least an hour, so I think I’ll have plenty of time.”
    Sophie scoffed. “That’s unfair. I only take an hour if I need to shower. I already took one this morning, so forty five minutes max.”
    “Forty five minutes is too long. I can be ready in twenty. I bet you can’t.” I knew there was no way she would take the challenge of just twenty minutes.
    “Fifteen,” she coolly countered, proving my theory wrong.
    “Done.”
    She ran from the table to her room as if we were on The Amazing Race or something. Conner found it funny and was laughing into his beer.
    Adam looked to Conner. “Ten bucks says Sienna will beat her.”
    “Let’s make it twenty,” Conner said. “I have faith in my girl. Damn, she ran out of here fast enough, but it’s not an actual race that we’re betting on. Their wager isn’t about who’s done first. It’s that they’ll both be ready in under fifteen minutes. So if they both make it within the fifteen minutes, we’ll call it a draw.”
    “Done.” Adam leaned back on his chair and propped his feet on the table . At least he had the decency to remove his shoes when he came in .
    “Feet off the table,” I scolded.
    “Don’t worry about my feet right now, Princess. Sophie’s got a head start on you, and I hate to lose money.”
    “What do I get out of this bet?” I challenged him.
    “Don’t be greedy. You’re going to lose your bet with Sophie if you don’t start getting ready.” He looked at the clock on the wall. “Tick tock. Looks as if you’re down to fourteen minutes. Better get a move on it.”
    It should be illegal to be so damn good looking and yet so cocky all at once. As much as his attitude could bug the living hell out of me, I knew behind my irritation was an