Page 98 of A Deal with the Bossy Devil

“Why are you so against it?”

“I asked you first.”

Adrien pinched his lips together and tilted his head. “I have a theory.”

I eyed him. “Okay. What is it?”

“I think you and I are a lot more…” He paused, presumably trying to think of the right way to phrase it. “I think we might be more compatible than we realize.”

I blinked at him. Did he know what the wordcompatiblemeant?

“In what way?” I asked dubiously.

“In every way.”

My lips jerked, my faculties returning to me one by one as the ridiculousness of his words set in. “You’re joking.” Surely, he was joking.

“Nope.”

“Adrien, we despise each other,” I reminded him.

“Right.” He paused again, this time to wet his lips and clear his throat. “Except for the part where I don’t actually despise you.”

A solid ten seconds passed before I asked, “What?”

He shrugged. “Despise is a strong word. I’m not even sure I hate you.”

Had a shooting star crashed through the roof and boinked me on the head I’d have been less flabbergasted. Was he serious?

“And I’m not convinced you hate me, either,” he went on.

Uh, wrong. I opened my mouth to tell him just that, except what came out was, “What? Why?”

“A hunch.”

Ahunch? In what distorted version of reality had I given him any indication whatsoever that I felt anything toward him other than pure contempt? Other than the whole kissing thing, but that was new and didn’t count.

Also, you could hate someone and still want to kiss them. Case-in-point, me and Adrien. Right here, right now.

Did my eyes keep flicking to his not-so-mediocre mouth against my direct orders? Yes.

Were my fingers twitching with the desire to grab his collar and yank his body to mine again? Sure.

Did I still want to strangle him? Abso-fucking-lutely I did.

Or wait… no. Strangulation was maybe a bit too violent. A kick to the shin would probably yield more appropriate results, as long as it wasn’t hard enough to break a bone, since he’d probably use it as an excuse to pull me into another absurd agreement as payback.

What would be next? He’d force me to actually marry him? I’d have to plan a whole wedding and walk down the aisle in a white dress? What then? I’d accidentally moan during the “you may now kiss the bride” part without realizing it? In achurch? In front of apriest?

Wait. Why was I thinking about marrying Adrien? How did I get—

Real-life Adrien said my name, yanking me back to reality.

“Huh?” I inquired eloquently.

“You went all quiet.”

“I…”I swear to Mother Gaia herself, if you blurt anything about marrying him out loud, I’ll hurl you out the window.“I do.”

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