Page 44 of In the Midst of Chaos

This didn’t mean a thing to me.

Putting my hand on his hard chest, I pushed him away.

Huxley looked like he was on cloud nine. His brown eyes were glittering, and a slow, sensual smile spread across his handsome face. Unfortunately for him, I felt nothing.

“Don’t be shy,” he teased me, trying to go in for another kiss.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked as I got up to not be in his vicinity.

He looked perplexed that I had asked such a question.

“Come on, Fin,” he said as he got up too. He brought a hand behind his neck and scratched. “You have to know how I feel about you.”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

Fuck.

I did see it, but I pretended like I didn’t. As if pretending like he didn’t feel anything for me would help me get out of the mess I had landed in.

“Hux,” I whispered.

He could hear the regret in my voice and see the sorrow on my face. The hard truth was etched on me.

“We’re getting married, Finley,” he whispered harshly.

I sucked in a breath because he now knew. Fuck, I thought I had more time to deal with this. I never took his feelings into consideration because he didn’t know about the arrangement and because I couldn’t keep on pretending like he didn’t have feelings for me.

“You know,” I managed to choke out.

“And you didn’t tell me? Why?”

I tried to say something, but he cut me off.

“You picked me!” he growled. “You want me too.”

He pulled me against him this time for a deeper kiss. There was a snapping of twigs, and I pushed him away. Once I was far enough, I slapped him. He held onto his cheek with regret setting into his eyes.

“How dare you!” I yelled. “I don’t care if I picked you, if I’m with you, or if I love you. You never touch me without my permission again.”

He held onto his cheek and took a step toward me.

“It’s going to be good between us, Fin. I love you.”

It felt like I couldn’t breathe despite being in the open air. I gasped, but I still felt like I was suffocating. I couldn’t answer him, so I ran away. I ran into the woods until I hit a wall.

Only it wasn’t a wall.

It was Nash, and he held me at arm’s length, steadying me but not wanting to get close enough to me.

“Nash,” I said, relieved that he was here, knowing he would make it all better.

But he didn’t do any of that. He was angry. He looked down at me, his eyes icy and cold. He wasn’t the boy I loved, the one who held onto the precarious pieces of my heart.

“He touched you.” He spat the words out like they were venom. “He fucking kissed you.”

“It didn’t mean anything,” I said, trying to touch his face.

“You let him,” he growled.

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