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“There’s no interest here, vamp. You’re free to screw whoever you please.” I clench my fists and push past him, ignoring a brush of disappointment.
He hops in front of me before I take another step.
“What?” I growl.
With soft amusement, he brushes a thumb over the friella petals tickling my ear, studying me by touch. “I’d like to propose a deal.”
We’re left to the sounds of crackling embers as the crowd wanes, and I’m pretty sure this is the part where I tell him to fuck right off, snoop for whatever information I can gather, and then be on my merry way.
But I was always too curious for my own good.
“I’m listening.”
“What if, just for tonight, you pretended you don’t hate me?” My head falls back with an exaggerated sigh, but he charges on, tapping my sternum with the tip of his finger. “In fact, maybe you even enjoy my company a little.”
I snort. “That’s a pretty big ask.”
A kaleidoscope of mischief flits through his gaze. “When was the last time you just let go? Threw a middle finger in the air, laughed with your whole chest, or did something totally unexpected?”
The years following my time with the Owens are a complete blur. The faces of new families, how many kids they kept at a time, the different schools I went to. It’s like my brain has a hard lock on those memories and I can’t reach them, even if I wanted to.
So, in short, probably never. But after our horseback confessional, I don’t need any more reasons for him to think I’m pathetic.
“All right. Let’s say I’m actually considering it,” I muse. “What’s in this for you?”
“Honestly?” His touch grows bolder, sliding the pad of his thumb along the slope of my cheek, then across my lower lip.
I pant a feeble, “Yes.”
My lips burn beneath his stare as he watches my tongue instinctively flick over the bottom seam. “I suppose I want you to know the real me.”
“Why?”
A rich chuckle fans across my mouth. “Because for the last two days, all I could think about was how I should’ve kissed this smart mouth when I had the chance, and what it was that stopped me.”
What began as a tiny coil of heat turns molten, slipping between my legs as I remember Marcus dominating our battle of wills with one hand around my jaw on the staircase in the guest house.
“Then I realized it’s not me that you don’t like, but your perception of me.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He brings his lips close enough for me to inhale his every word. “You’re going to deny this attraction between us until your very last breath, aren’t you?”
How can I when he’s stealing each one for himself?
When those visions switch to me straddling, clawing, and licking my way up his body, I ask, “What exactly are you proposing?”
“That you simply loosen the reins and have a little fun with me.”
Reflecting on my earlier thoughts, what Marcus is offering is too tempting. Everything I know I can’t have could be mine for tonight.
Stubborn to a fault, I clarify, “Only one night?”
“One night.” Marcus wears the satisfied smirk of a man who’s just gotten his way. “Then you can go back to hating my guts.”
Half of my brain may be shouting for me to run, but for the first time in my life, I don’t want to question what happens next.
“Deal.” I jut my hand toward his to shake, but he threads our fingers together instead.
