Page 209 of The Re-Proposal

Told you! Why would someone like him be with someone like her?

She’s not even that pretty.

“Yeah,” Cody’s voice rumbles in the background while the floor crumbles from beneath me, “thanks, Clay.”

I whip around, the cell phone hoisted up in my hand like a stone.

Cody meets my frantic eyes and then, slowly, his gaze slides to the device. Awareness makes his jaw slacken, but he blinks and the chaos is gone. Leaving a statue of indifference beneath.

Somehow, I manage to stay on my feet while wave after wave of betrayal rolls over me. My blood pounds faster, harder, struggling to get to my brain. Struggling to make sense of this harsh turn.

“What the hell did you mean by this?” I hiss, shaking the phone back and forth, hoping it’s like a magic eight ball.

Should I sleep with my ex-fiancé mere hours after he tells the world I mean nothing to him?

One shake.

One answer.

Absolutely not.

Oh crap. What have I done?

You get very, very foolish when you’re in love, Clarissa.

Guess mom was right.

“What the hell, Cody?” I yell this time.

His face is calm which makes me even more delirious with anger. I bare my teeth, a rough sound tearing out of my throat that’s part guttural curse and part embarrassed grunt.

“What do you think it is?” he asks.

Coward.

I let out a bitter laugh.

A few minutes ago, his powerful body had me in a chokehold as he hammered into me, hips slashing harder than a power tool, hands fusing us together until I was full to the brim with him.

Now, he’s hammering me into the ground with his coldness.

Hurt is swelling in my throat. Pain like a thousand tiny needles are shooting into my neck.

Cody stares at me. Gone is the tender man who held me, who growled delicate words of love in my ear, who interspersed violently passionate thrusts with kisses like gentle rain and caresses like a summer breeze.

He’s a dark lord now.

Pure villain.

Well-intentioned—villains always are. The best of them always have a reason. It’s what makes them compelling. The tragic backstory. The past rooted in bloodshed, anger and betrayal.

We would root for villains if not for one thing—on their quest to make things right, they hurt people, especially the people they love.

Right reasons, wrong means.

“I know why you did it.” I bite the words out. I wish I didn’t. I wish I could just throw him away and make it so that his words are the real culprit for this sense of betrayal.

But I can’t.

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