Page 17 of My Irresistible Enemy

“Be my guest. Far be it from me to keep the golden boy from looking his best.”

I’m not sure what made me snap, exactly. Was it his tone? His words? Or just the fact that he still smelled unfairly good, even though it was clear from his dry hair that he hadn’t showered yet.

“Okay, what the actual fuck is your problem?” I exploded. “What did I ever do to you?”

Nolan blinked and gave me a look that saidIwas the one being unreasonable. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I mean this whole stick-up-your-ass, holier-than-thou act you’ve got going on. Your comments about how some of us should worry more about baking and less about being cute for the cameras.”

“That’s not what I said,” he snapped.

“It’s what you meant.”

His eyebrows drew down, and his mouth did that little trying-to-decide-what-to-say thing again. Anger flared in me. He had no right to look that dreamy, no right to have a chest that made me want to lick it, arms I wanted wrapped around me, and a dark little happy trail leading down his waist that made me want to pull that towel right off and worship him.

I shook my head. I needed to focus. We were fighting, not fucking.

“See,” I said. “You’re not even denying it.”

“And you’re not denying that you’re doing a fuckingact,” Nolan retorted. “Doing your whole mouthy, messy twink bit, instead of focusing on what we’re actually on the show to do.”

“I’ll have you know I’m a mouthy, messy twink in real life, asshole. It’s not an act. But even if it were, so what? What’s wrong with wanting people to like me?”

“You mean, other than the fact that you’re playing into harmful stereotypes and using your sexuality as a pick-me device, when there are still people out there who think you and I are perverted criminals?”

“Oh no. No, no, no.” I shook my head. “You don’t get to lecture me about how I come off to other people. At least I’m proud of who I am, and not still hiding in the closet.”

“I’m sorry, thecloset?”

“Well, aren’t you? You didn’t want to talk about it on the show. And I’m sure you wouldn’t want your friend from the ferry to know about you. What would you call that, if not the closet?”

“My friend from the ferry?” Nolan stared at me in confusion. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I saw you talking to him,” I said. “There’s no point denying it. And I just think it’s kinda rich for you to talk about people who think we’re criminals when your boss, or dad, or whoever the fuck he was told me I was going to hell.”

“I didn’t talk to anyone on the ferry except you and—oh my God,thatguy?” Nolan groaned. “I talked to some guy for ten seconds to ask him if he knew when the ferry was coming, and he basically told me to go fuck myself and walked away. Isthatwho you’re talking about? Because I don’t know him. I’d never seen him before in my life.”

“I—” I broke off, flushing. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.” Nolan rolled his eyes. “So maybe think for a moment before you go around accusing people and making baseless assumptions, huh?”

“Oh, fuck you.” Every time I was about to apologize, Nolan found a way to make me change my mind. I took a step towards him, jabbing my finger in his direction. “Listen, I made a mistake there, but you can’t deny that you’ve been nothing but an ass to me since—”

“I’vebeen an ass? You’re the one who acted like I was trying to send you to conversion camp for suggesting it might be inappropriate to jerk off in a public restroom.”

“Oh, hell no. You don’t get to make jokes about conversion camp. No one’s trying to prayyourgay away, not when you could just as simply date a woman and never have to admit who you really are.”

I took another step, my finger practically touching his chest now, waiting for Nolan to respond. But he didn’t. He just watched me, his eyes narrowed, his lips parted.

“Are you even bisexual?” I asked, electricity flowing through me. I felt high. “Or is it just something you say to win woke points? I bet that’s it. I bet youwantedthe show to dig through your background, bet you planted something for—”

“What the fuck is the matter with you?” Nolan snapped, his hand closing around my finger and holding it in mid-air. It didn’t hurt, and he didn’t do anything else, but a tremor ran through me at his touch. “You knownothingabout me. How can you think that’s a normal thing to say to someone?”

“I’m just saying that if you were really bi, maybe you wouldn’t make such an effort to hide it from people. Have you even been with a guy, or was staring at my cock yesterday the closest you’ve ever gotten to—”

Before I could finish my sentence, Nolan’s lips were on mine.

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