Page 30 of Obsessed with my Temptation

I didn’t even bother looking at him. “I’ll clean up after.”

* * *

I went out to the backside of the house. There were no windows on the ground floor here, only stone wall. The party was on the other side of the building, and the space was only vaguely lit by a far-off streetlight—not too different from what it’d been like in the alley.

Only this time, there was no taming the restless energy going through my veins. I’d felt confident and daring the last time, but tonight, right now, I felt like my skin was about to burst, like a hungry monster might just come out.

The sound of footsteps managed to soothe some of this energy but my heart was still beating fast and loud in my ears as I turned to Scott.

“What do you want?” he asked.

He looked delicious in this light. His blond hair caught some of the warm light, his shoulders tense, a vulnerable expression on his face. Like he’d come here against better judgment. Like he was too weak to stop himself from making a bad decision.

That makes two of us.

I cut to the chase. “I told you not to hang out with Mark.”

Scott stared at me, nostrils flaring. “And I should do it, just because you ask me to?”

“Yes. He’s a bad guy,” I said, voice gravelly.

“Right. And you aren’t?”

I was.

There were almost eight feet separating us. Too many.

I balled my hands into fists. “He’s trying to get into your pants.”

Scott let out a small, humorless chuckle. “I got that memo when he offered to have a threesome with me and Henry.”

I froze on the spot. My jaw tightened enough to break bones, and I fucking imagined just that—crushing Mark until he was only dust.

He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t ruin Scott.

Barely aware of myself, I took several steps toward Scott, but stopped myself halfway. “He’s not a good guy, Scott. You shouldn’t get mixed up with the likes of him.”

Scott stared at me, blue eyes faintly catching the glow of the streetlight, face set hard. “He’s a straight-A student, the Mayor’s son, and he has a shining reputation. I don’t see what’s so wrong with him.”

“You should know better than to trust appearances,” I said feeling like an asshole even before he flinched. “And he’s wrong foryou.”

“And why do you care?” Scott asked, suddenly looking a little wild. “I thought you were ignoring me.”

“I was trying to do the best for the both of us,” I said between my teeth, forcing myself to stay back and not cut the distance between us.

I wanted to take his face in my hands andmake him listen.

I wanted to do other things, too.

“Howhonorableof you.”

We were both angry. This tension between us was taut and palpable, like a physical thing. We wanted things we shouldn’t want and we resented it as we tried to hold ourselves back.

“You don’t want him,” I said anyway.

There was a sheen of defiance in his eyes. “Maybe I do.”

It was enough to make something snap inside me. “Do you?” I raised a brow, and took a slow step toward him.

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