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Yanking my shirt from my pants, I tear through the buttons and toss it away. After I shove my phone on the charger and bang my wallet on my dresser, everything else I’m wearing hits the floor.
Why did I ever think she’d want me for me? Women don’t. They never have. When I was younger, they came to me because I was a bad boy rumored to be good in bed. Lately, women I bang see nothing but cock and dollar signs. Hadley fooled me. She wanted upward mobility, which I understood. I made the mistake of trusting she wouldn’t fuck me over to get it.
Corinne is nothing like those women. She’s the yin to my yang. The opposite who attracts me. I thought something real was brewing between us.
I’ve been bullshitting myself.
But if I want her, is giving up really the answer? After all, no one wins a game they never play…
Maybe it’s possible to pleasure my way into her heart. It’s a long shot, but what the fuck else do I have? Quitting? Defeat? Hard pass. I’m not giving her over to Riley, that douchebag, without a fight. She might think she has feelings for him, but I’m convinced I’ve got at least a sliver of her heart, too.
Instead of reaching for shorts and a tank and retreating to another part of the house where I don’t have to hear Corinne cry for another man, I march for the door—stark naked—and use the key stashed above the frame to let myself in. We’re going to have this out.
Now.
The steam billowing from the shower is thick. Corinne sits on the tiled bench, knees against her chest, shoulders shaking, as the water pelts the top of her bowed head.
I grind my teeth. Yes, I’m goddamn furious. Not with her. She can’t help her feelings. But why the fuck would such an extraordinary woman fall for a guy who’s both boring and going nowhere? That’s not to say she would automatically choose the ruthless son of a bitch who, until she came along, devoted his life to making green and tapping ass. One who gleefully said yes to revenge. But I won’t let up until Corinne knows he’s all wrong for her and I’m an option.
Yanking open the glass door, I step into the enclosure large enough for a basketball team. She jerks her head up to stare at me with huge eyes dripping mascara and a trembling mouth. It’s not her best look, yet she still makes my heart stop.
“What are you doing here?”
Her tears spark my temper. “Why are you letting that asshole make you cry?”
“You don’t understand.” She shakes her head. “How could you? You brazen your way past most every problem and BS through the rest. You’ve probably never been embarrassed in your life.”
“Riley is an idiot. He dumped you. Why give a shit what he thinks?”
She looks at me as if I’ve lost my mind. “He was my world once.”
Ouch. I didn’t need to hear that. “He’s not now, is he?”
Angrily, Corinne uncurls from her sitting-up fetal position and springs into my personal space, her jaw and her fists clenched. Oh, I’ve hit a sore spot. She’s mad. There’s fight in her eyes. I’m happy to indulge.
“What I don’t know is why,” she yells. “According to you, he bought me a ring. And something I did was so terrible, so repulsive, that he returned it and left me—like every other fucking person in my life. And you’re surprised I’m unhappy that I’ve horrified him again?”
Whoa. I’ve never heard Corinne curse at all, much less drop an F-bomb. She’d only do that if this dude was important to her.
That fucking pisses me off.
“Ever think maybe you weren’t the problem?”
“I was the only other person in the relationship.”
“If you’d acted any differently—then or now—it wouldn’t have been you he loved, just an illusion. Would merely having his warm body beside you be enough to make you happy?”
“Shut up,” she snaps. “You don’t understand.”
“Yes, I do.” I grab her arms and haul her against me. Of course I’m hard. She’s naked, my blood is pumping, and just like my heart, my cock wants to prove that I’m the man for her. “Answer the fucking question.”
“It’s absurd. Of course not.”
She’s lying to herself. “What did you love about him? Name three things.”
“I don’t have to explain my feelings to you.”
“I’m just trying to understand. If he was the love of your life, tell me why.”
“You won’t get it.”
I raise a brow at her. “Because I’m too stupid?”
“Don’t twist my words.”
“Then spell it out for me.”
“Fine.” She fumes, arms crossed belligerently over her chest as a silent Keep Out sign. “He…he had nice manners. He treated his mother well. A-and…”
I start fake-snoring. “He comports himself well and he’s a mommy’s boy? That’s what you’ve got? Bo-ring.”
