Page 25 of Guarded Rebellion

He deprived me of answering my classmate, though. Lunging forward, he shoved Bryce’s arm off me at the same time he wrapped his arm around my waist, propelling me to the side to walk along the narrower space of a row of empty, folded-up seats.

“Hey!” I caught myself from toppling over into the next row, moved too quickly from his maneuver to be balanced.

Lev urged me to continue on, though, not letting me fall. With his hand closed around my wrist, he pushed me to hurry along the row until we reached the side aisle.

“What the hell?—”

He spun me, cutting me off as he pushed me against the column there. My back smacked into the round surface, and by the time I huffed a breath to blow my hair out of my face, I realized he’d cornered me in a private nook off from anyone else’s view.

“What the hell,” he growled, stealing my words, “were you thinking talking to him?”

Fury radiated off him. His eyes were slitted in anger, and the tension in his hard body fueled me to react in kind. My temper boiled over, and I pushed to shove him back. He didn’t let me, of course, insistent on getting an answer.

“I can talk to whoever the hell I want to,” I argued, instantly enraged at his controlling attitude.

Yeah, I was controlled. True, I had no real freedom. My life wasn’t mine to decide. But while I was here at college and trying to fit in as an ordinary twenty-something, I wanted to bask in that illusion. And I hated how much he was a reminder that I could never have what I desired.

Freedom. Independence. The ability to make my own choices.

“Not according to me.” He advanced, closing in on me and caging me to the wall again. It was such a dick move. It was an action of an obsessive control freak trying to rule with the superiority of being a man.

Yet, it was hot as fuck. The closer he pushed his big, hard body toward mine, I wanted to cling to him more. To feel… all of him. Desire sped through my veins, and I hated how quickly my body could want what my brain warned against.

“You are here to study. To read your fucking books and take notes. Not flirt with punk-ass boys like him.”

A fleeting thought struck me that he could be… jealous. Marcus was near. He saw me next to Bryce, and he hadn’t freaked out. Rurik never seemed this overprotective and worried if a man ever spoke to me on campus. This feral anger belonged to Lev alone, and I wondered.

You’re jealous, aren’t you?

I couldn’t call him out on that. To address the tension simmering between us, I’d have to admit that I wanted him too. And no good could come from that.

“I didn’t give you permission to speak to him.”

I huffed, biting my lip as I glanced away, thrown off by this suspicion that he could be jealous.

If he’s jealous, it means he cares. It means… I matter.

“He approached me. He came to say hello to me. I did nothing. I didn’t encourage anything.”

“You didn’t encourage him?” He ground his teeth and shook his head. “I saw you. That shy smile. Laughing along. I saw you next to him. It didn’t look like you were trying so hard to discourage him.”

“Oh, fuck you, Lev. Fuck. You.” At the last clang of the hall doors closing, signaling we were the only ones in here, I pushed his chest and slipped to the side. “He talked tome. For maybe ten seconds. Get over it.”

“No. I won’t get over it. You need to follow my rules and my orders, and that includes not talking to that piece of shit who’s only trying to get in your pants.”

“Iamfollowing your rules,” I shot back as I walked up the aisle to exit.

“It didn’t look like it.”

“Oh, so you can be distracted and barely paying attention to me with all your calls, but the second you put it down, you have to take out your anger on me? Fuck you, Lev.”

“I’m not angry,” he replied as he marched alongside me.

“God. What a joke. You’re not angry?” I smirked. “Yeah, I’m not buying that.”

“I’m furious,” he growled instead. “Do not speak to him again. Have I made myself clear?”

My heart raced at his words. So controlling. So dominant. I was sick and tired of men dictating everything in my life. For once, I wanted a goddamn break from it.

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