Page 33 of Bittersweet Legacy

“I’m not sure what-” I stopped as he caught my face between his fingers, tightening just enough on my jaw to make it hurt.

He pushed me against the sink and pressed his body against mine before slamming his lips on mine, it was a hard kiss, punishing, it was bruising and somehow, I didn’t hate it. The realisation mortified me; I bucked my hips in an attempt to push him off but the growing, hard part of his body against my hip showed that he actually enjoyed a little fight.

He caught my bottom lip between his teeth and nipped. Not hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough to show he meant business.

“Let me in,” he growled, running his tongue along the seam of my lip.

Yes, he did enjoy the fight way too much. I stopped fighting and gasped as he pinched my butt, giving him the perfect opportunity to invade my mouth.

His kiss was like a lost war, there was no battle of dominance as he conquered my mouth with his tongue, tasting me, and I found myself kissing him back with almost as much fervor.

He groaned when I returned his kiss, pressing his hips even more against me, rocking in a very suggestive matter, his penis erected against my hip, his body taking over the lesson he was so determined to give me.

I could lie, pretend I was kissing him back just to be done with it, but truthfully, I enjoyed the passion behind it even if it was born from hate instead of love.

He broke the kiss as suddenly as he started it and despite his stoic face, his ragged breathing showed me that the kiss affected him as much as it affected me.

He kept his body against mine, scrutinising my face, running his thumb back and forth against his bottom lip as if he was trying to figure something out.

“Why did you do that?” I whispered, not trusting my own voice. I hated all the conflicting feelings rushing into me at once, I enjoyed a kiss I never should have enjoyed – It was an assault, he attacked me and yet all I could see was his anger and desperation and all I could still feel was the dark passion this kiss started to kindle in me.

“We had to seal the deal, didn’t we?” He smirked, damn I hated that smirk. “Not too bad.” He took a step back, then another giving me back my space, allowing me to breathe more freely.

He turned around to leave but turned toward me again. “Oh, also I would rather that our new engaged status remained between us for the time being.”

I snorted. “Yeah, like I want the world to know.”

I recoiled at the anger I saw flash in his eyes, Caleb Astor was certainly not as aloof as he was pretending to be, that much was clear.

“We’ll tell when I’m ready to tell and not before.”

“You need time to let your girlfriends down gently? I understand.”

He laughed at that, a laugh that made me shivered at the similarities to my father’s. I couldn’t marry a younger version of my father; I would not survive it.

“I don't do girlfriends, Esmeralda, I do hook-ups and I’m not planning on telling them goodbye, not now – not ever.”

I nodded – the message received loud and clear… Faithfulness was clearly not his intention but I wouldn't argue – not now, anyway. He was just as stuck as I was in this simulacrum of an engagement, he was maybe trying to find a way out, not something I was against.

He looked at me a little longer, was he expecting a fight? We both wanted freedom, I was just not going to admit it.

He opened the door and walked out without a look back. So much for manners.

I rolled my eyes, following him to my fathers’ office.

He knocked sharply and didn't wait for an invitation to walk in, I understood it was a little provocation I wasn’t sure what was really happening between the Astors and the Forbes but there was no lost love there, and a lot of history.

His father stood up from his seat, clapping his hands together. “We were just done discussing your engagement party.”

Engagement party. I thought, trying my best to keep my face blank.

“Are you done?” he asked Caleb.

“Yes, thank you.”

His father winked to mine. “The lovebirds needed a bit of alone time.”

I didn’t manage to stop my eyeroll this time and was grateful my father was looking at James instead of me, but Caleb was looking at me and his glare deepened.

---