Page 49 of Ditching the Dragon (Fated Dates)

My hands ball into tight fists like I’ll legitimately punch him.

“Oh, fuck you, Wickham Barrett! You don’t know the first thing about me. I’m nothing more than a trophy to you.”

“I know everything you’ve let me know,” he growls.

“You might know my bank account number and my breakfast order, but you do not knowme. You never will.”

He lunges for me and seizes hold of my wrists. He spins me and traps me in his arms bound tightly around my waist.

This man, this impossible man, fully lifts me off my feet and takes a step toward the door. He thinks he can force me to leave with him.

“You can take me wherever you want, but I’ll never be yours.”

Without warning, he drops me to my feet and whirls me around.

“Enough,” he snarls. “You don’t hate me; you hate having to sacrifice. You hate risks and change. You hate having to trust anything to someone else.”

“That’s not true,” I insist and poke a finger into his stupidly firm chest.

“No? You’re always pricking at my jealousy, but you don’t acknowledge your own. How would you feel if I left and broughtsomeone elseto my basement?”

My muscles practically shake with fury.

“You wouldn’t dare,” I seethe.

“You hate me. You don’t want me. You run from me. You avoid me. You send these one-sided texts. It’s all about you. Maybe I don’t want a mate who’s utterly unavailable.”

Tears stream down my face.

“Don’t,” I whimper.

His face breaks for the barest moment. His head knocks back as he frowns, but then Frustrated Wick comes back.

“Don’t what, Annie? Don’t want you? Don’t rearrange my life to chase after you? Don’t sacrifice my business, my very existence,for you? It’s too late for all that. I already need you—have needed you since the first time blue eyes and the scent of lemon and lavender hit me like a baseball bat to the skull.”

He yanks my arms and traps me in an embrace as his mouth falls on mine. The kiss is needy and insistent, like he’s desperate to have me finally agree.

Wickham Barrett chases my lips as he demands I prove my indifference.

Because he knows I can’t.

Being so close to him after so many weeks apart makes my heart both sing and sorrowful. A few minutes at that club wasn’t enough.

I want to go with him because I’m an idiot.

“Prove you hate me, Annie,” he breathes and nips at my bottom lip.

I snake an arm up to grip his hair and tug his head away. He grips the side clasp on my skirt and lets it fall to the ground.

“I hate you,” I snarl with complete eye contact.

He smirks, but he quickly hides it. “I don’t think you do.”

Wick grabs my ass and grinds our hips together. My heart thuds in my chest as if it wants to break free, and my lungs heave like I’m suffocating.

Because I am. I’m drowning in my mate—in my neediness and his demands.

Being with Wick is like being willingly swept to sea. I have no choice, but I freely float in the viciously enjoyable currents.

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