Page 104 of Hate Me

He shrugged her off. “Get back.”

With the distraction she was posing, Jeremy used it against Caleb, then slammed his arms up and out, breaking his grip.

He threw his fist.

But Caspian was there just in time, catching it in his palm, then shoving it back with such force that it had Jeremy stumbling.

Caleb started toward him, but Caspian shoved him back with a hand to his chest. “Enough.”

“Like hell.”

“I allowed you to get it out of your system. Leave it at that, Caleb.”

So that was why he hadn’t stepped in right away.

I walked to Caleb and wiped blood out of the corner of his mouth. As I went to wipe it on my jeans, he snatched my hand and sucked my fingers into his mouth, his eyes flaming. Jeez.

“Thanks, B,” he said, smirking as he released my hand.

I rolled my eyes. “Seriously?”

His gaze dipped to my groin, the corner of his mouth turning up when he saw my semi-hard state. “Interesting.”

“Get over yourself. It was the delivering of justice and punishment.”

“Sure.”

“They’re fucking barbarians!” Jeremy yelled to Sky, jolting me and Caleb back to the moment.

Sky walked to him and took his hand. “Stop, Jer.” She looked him over. “Are you okay?”

“I’m not worried about me. It’s about you.”

She pulled her hand away and stared at him. “You didn’t come here to make sure I was okay, did you?”

“Of course I did. Your dad’s gonna reach out in a couple of days and—”

“I tried to call you, but you never picked up. You didn’t want to hear my voice because then you’d know for sure that it was real, that I was actually fine here, and you didn’t want that to be the case, did you? You wanted it to be manufactured by Caspian and the guys. It’s why you wouldn’t accept my texts as actually being from me. You wanted to believe they were the ones speaking for me, that I was really being held captive and in jeopardy and distress.”

“That’s not—”

“Jer,” she ground out in that no-nonsense tone we hadn’t heard from her in a long time.

“One time is a mistake, S! Four times most definitely isn’t!”

“God, we talked about this. What happened between us was a product of circumstance. I was even dead inside when we went there and I made that clear to you. It’s been over a year since we—”

“Made love?”

“Urgh,” I uttered.

Sky swung her head toward me. “That’s gross to you?”

“When it’s for him, yeah.”

She tugged at her hair. “It wasn’t for him.” She looked back at Jeremy. “You were intent on helping me with my mission so that it wouldn’t become a suicide mission, so that I could get back to my men. Was that all bullshit?”

“What do you think? Of course! These last few weeks, I’ve been trying to track that bastard on my own for you. So you don’t have to rely on these fuckers, S.”

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