Page 40 of Flipping the Script

That’s when I’d relive the encounter in vivid detail, and I’d be left with a raging boner that wouldn’t go away unless I took care of it.

I hated that I’d jerked off to thoughts of Jesse, and all that anger hit at once, dark and wild and so exhilarating I couldn’t stop the smile that split my lips.

“What?” he demanded.

“What?” I asked innocently.

“What’s funny?”

“Absolutely nothing.” I kept grinning at him. I probably looked deranged, but it was either this or glare. And this would piss him off more. “Except…”

“Except what?” He puffed out his chest, the material of his shirt brushing mine.

“Except whatever you’ve got going on now.”

“Excuse me?” he asked, his voice dripping with derision.

“This growly angry version of you. It’s fun watching your robot facade crack open and see you act like an actual human.”

“My robot facade? What does that even mean?”

“The mask you wear around everyone.”

“I don’t wear masks.”

“Not literally, dumbass.”

His glare intensified and his breathing picked up.

“We all wear masks. Every moment of every day, we decide what we’re going to show people, and we put on the mask we want them to see.”

Something flickered in his gaze. Not anger, not really. More like vulnerability. But that couldn’t be right.

“Everyone thinks you’re this calm and collected guy. The voice of reason and the hero we need,” I continued.

That flicker was replaced by anger. Adrenaline poured into my system as his breathing went a bit ragged.

I couldfeelhis control slipping, and instead of shutting the fuck up and telling him to leave me alone, I kept going.

I needed his anger like I needed air. Needed to watch him snap and know thatI’dbeen the one to make him lose control.

“But I know the truth.”

“And what’s the truth?” he practically snarled at me.

Oh yeah. He was close.

I could see it in how he kept balling his fists and shifting his weight from foot to foot. How his jaw cracked as he gritted his teeth, coupled with the death glare he was leveling at me.

Fuck yeah.

This was what I needed. It was messed up and didn’t make any sense, but arguing with Jesse was the most alive I’d felt in a long time.

“That you pretend like you have your shit together and you’re this perfect robot who feels nothing, but you’re not. You’re messy and imperfect and a little unhinged, just like me. You feel everything, but you pretend like you’re above things like emotions because you think it makes you better than the rest of us.”

“Shut up.” His voice was low and even, his glare so intense I couldn’t look away.

“No.” I leaned the slightest bit closer. “And you’re not better than me.”

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