Page 42 of Hate To Love You

I wonder if he has a personal vendetta when it comes to Ashton. That must be the reason he’s so bothered by him, right?

Honestly, I was kind of bothered by Ashton and his unwelcomed touches and threats. I’m not sure why he’s chosen to bother me. There are hundreds of girls on campus he could torment. Why me?

All I did was dance with him at a party when I was drunk. I don’t remember giving any indication that I wanted to sleep with him. Did I?

Ryker paces back and forth across the space of our living room. I don’t know how I ended up here, having Ryker Steele in my living room, angrily spewing out threats while I sit on the couch with my roommates and three other Elites.

This was certainly not on my bingo card for this semester.

I clear my throat, effectively halting Ryker in his tracks. He looks at me, his green eyes boring into me.

“I don’t know why you’re so worried. He’s just a stupid guy that can’t take a hint. He’ll get bored eventually,” I try to sound as confident as possible. Truth is, I’m not sure if Ashton will give up, but eventually he has to, right?

Ryker’s eyes narrow with anger. “Gwen, the guy said he wants to use you to get back at me. He’s not going to stop until he does just that, and I’m not letting that happen,” he states in a gravelly tone.

I watch as Lainey raises her hand, looking a bit nervous. Ryker’s head twists in her direction.

“What?” he snaps. Lainey doesn’t even flinch at his harsh tone.

“So, what are we supposed to do about him? We can’t exactly get rid of him,” she points out. Holland chuckles under his breath.

“You let us deal with that, Barkley. Nothing to worry your pretty little head over,” he gives her a condescending smile. Her blue eyes narrow in his direction.

“Why are you even here? Shouldn’t you be out finding some poor girl to fuck over?” she taunts. Ellie and I exchange a questioning glance. What the hell is going on between them? I make a mental note to ask Lainey about it later.

“Will you two shut the fuck up?” Ryker demands, more than he asks. The two continue to glare at each other without speaking.

Ryker’s gaze moves back to me, his eyes serious as they move over my body, then land on my face.

“I don’t want him anywhere near you. You should have one of us with you at all times,” he insists. Is he serious? He thinks I need a bodyguard now? This is ridiculous.

I stand from my seat on the couch, holding my hands at my side so I don’t punch Ryker in his stupidly attractive face.

“I don’t need a fucking bodyguard, Ryker. For one thing, I can take care of myself, I don’t need you. Two, Ashton is going to forget all about this in a week. There’s no reason to get this worked up about it.”

Ryker takes a step closer to me, the smell of his shampoo and soap swirling around me.

“Why can’t you just listen to me for once?” he spits.

“Because you’re not always right, Ryker!”

“Well, I’m right about this,” he declares, as if he can see the future and knows for a fact that he is absolutely sure about this.

“How do you know?” I challenge. “There’s no way you can know for sure that Ashton is going to be a problem,” I inch closer until I’m right in his face. Ryker’s eyes don’t leave mine.

“Trust me,” is all he says. Trust him? Why should I?

“I don’t need you to save me. I can handle it,” I say in a low voice, now aware that my friends are watching this entire scene. I look around the room at the confused expressions carefully watching us and shake my head.

“I’m going to bed. Let yourselves out.”

With that, I stalk off to my room, slamming the door in frustration.

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Tonight took a turn that I truly did not expect. I didn’t want to go to that stupid game in the first place. Now I’m stuck dealing with a creep who’s decided that he needs me to get back at the guy that confuses and pisses me off to no end.

I can’t for the life of me understand why Ryker is going to such lengths to protect me when he’s done nothing but try to make my life harder since we started this damn project.

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