Page 80 of My Ruthless Opponent

Raleigh scoffs. “That wasn’t a kiss.”

Did I hear that right? or is he high?

“Then what was that?pleasedo the honor of enlightening me.”

Raleigh closes the distance between us. “That wasn’t a kiss. I was trying to shut that smart mouth of yours.” Lowering his mouth to my ear, he says, “When I’ll kiss you, it will go on for hours.”

When he pulls back, his eyes drop to my mouth for a moment then slide up. The heat in his stare holds a promise.

Clearing my throat, I cross my arms. “PDA to a certain level is fine. What you did in front of Archer was… crass.”

“WhatIdid? I might’ve initiated the kiss but you were kissing me back with surprising gusto.”

My cheeks are burning. “Focus on the point. Know your limits. I won’t allow such behavior again.”

“Allow?” A bark of laughter bursts from him.

Then I witness a change in his body language.

In a blink of an eye, all the humor vanishes from his face.

His cool blue gaze locks on mine, his expression hard and intense.

“Don’t let the past few days confuse you, princess. I am still your rival. And I still aim to snag that promotion. You are using me and I am using you. We both need each other to execute this campaign. Don’t waste your breath on talking about limits. Because I am going to break all of them. Smash them into million pieces to get what I want.”

He is indeed fucking ruthless.

Raleigh continues. “Archer is going to be there. You are clever enough to figure out he is coming to keep an eye on us. He already knows we are lying. Although he said he wouldn’t interfere in our work, he will be around.”

“I think in his own way, Archer is giving us a chance. He loves us. He wants to believe us. If it were any other employee, he would’ve fired them in a heartbeat.” I tell him.

“One more reason to work hard on our act. If you kept putting limits on my actions, we will never succeed. And I won’t let my plan fail.” Raleigh says.

He is right. I can’t stand this man. And I have to tolerate anything he throws my way because we’ll have eyes on us.

That means this campaign just got 100x harder. Suddenly, I don’t want to do this anymore.

I might have said that out loud because Raleigh narrows his eyes.

“Tough shit.” He mocks. “I think you are forgetting that we are getting married for real. If you think a week-long trip is challenging, you better buckle up, princess.”

My blood runs cold. He is dead serious.

He continues. “After all, we have to stay married for ayear.”

Raleigh’s voice is taunting. His words are threateningly sinister. A promise of misery.

I don’t know how I’m going to pull through it. All I know is I can’t give up. Not now. Not ever.

This battle is not going to be easy.

Earlier, I was driven by my hatred. That strong emotion used to fill me with the strength to stand my ground against him.

But now, that hatred is slowly changing into something lethal. Something dangerous that can distract me from my goal. If not careful, this alien feeling can become my weakness.

???

A few days later, things at the office escalated.

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