Page 78 of Oh, Hell No

I opened my mouth, then shut it.

He stepped toward me, and I took a step back, which was a bad idea in hindsight because that allowed him an in to the apartment. Yeah, not happening.

“Look, um, Alec, I forgive you. I don’t care. I mean, I did then, but as you said, it’s been over a year. That was another lifetimeago. There really isn’t anything for us to talk about.”

He walked over to the sofa and sat down.

What the hell? Did he not just hear me?

Leaning back as if he belonged here, he propped an ankle on his knee and stretched out an arm along the back of it. Tilting his head, he winked at me. “Come on, Winzy. Talk to me. If for nothing else, closure.”

I let go of the door and turned to face him. “I…have closure,” I said, frowning.

Did he need closure?

“Come on, babe. I miss you. I miss talking to you. You were my best friend. Then—poof—gone.”

I narrowed my eyes. Had he always been this obnoxious?

“I wouldn’t call itpoof. More like you were going down on another girl and she answered your phone when I called.”

He winced. “She was a bitch, babe. One that was a fucking mistake. I messed up. Learned my lesson. I let the best thing that had ever happened to me walk away.”

I pointed at my chest. “Me?”

He gave me a smug smile and nodded. Like that was news I’d been waiting to hear him say. Talk about having a big head. The NFL had really ruined him. There was no way he had been this bad when we dated. I’d have remembered.

“Okay, as nice as that is for you to say, I do not feel the same way. To be completely honest, I don’t feel anything where you’re concerned.”

The incredulous smirk, as if he didn’t believe me, made me think maybe I did feel something. Disgust.

He stood up, and I hoped that meant he was leaving. “That’s not true. You love me.”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t.”

He walked toward me, and I watched him warily.

“Winzy, come on. I’ve been punished, babe. A fucking year of it.Just give me a little here. Something to work with.”

I held up both hands when it didn’t look like he was going to stop until he was on top of me. “Look, as hard as this might be for you to understand, I don’t love you. I don’t want you. I actually don’t even think about you. I’m in a relationship.” I pointed at the oven. “Smell that? It’s lasagna. I’m making it for our dinner.”

Alec shrugged. “I don’t doubt you are. You’re beautiful. It’s why I asked you out the first time. But he’s not me.”

Thank God for that.

“No, he isn’t. But I don’t love you or want you.”

“Don’t believe it,” he said, then grabbed the back of my head and slammed his mouth against mine.

I shook my head, shoving at his chest, and pressed my lips together tightly while his tongue kept pushing to get inside.

EW! NO!

When that didn’t work, I began to hit his chest with my fist.

That seemed to get through to him, and he pulled back, his hand still on the back of my head.

“Are you really not going to kiss me back?”

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