Page 43 of Cruel Devotion

She rolled her eyes. “You don’t scare me. What are you after? Why are you pretending to suddenly be my friend?”

“I’m not pretending.” I stepped toward her quicker than she could retreat. In response, she flattened her back to the frame of a bookcase, and I closed in on her. Setting one hand above her head and holding on to her waist with my free hand, I caged her in.

“You are. Because if you actually wanted to be on friendly terms with me, you’d apologize too.”

“I’ll tell you anything you want to hear, Haley.”

She shoved at me, scowling. “I’m serious. You act like an ass, bullying me for years, and now you think I’ll just forget about it? I’m not that gullible.”

“I never said you were gullible.”

“You just said you’d tell me anything I wanted to hear!”

“As in I’ll?—”

“Lie to my face just so you can mess with me even more.”

I gritted my teeth, stepping close until we were flush. She sucked in a breath, sandwiched between my chest and the frame of the bookcase. “I’m not messing with you.”

“You are!” She shoved at me, and I gripped her hand. “That’s what you do. You only want?—”

I thrust her hand up and dipped my head until my mouth was a breath away. “I wantyou.”

She furrowed her brow, still doubting me. As she looked at me, searching for an answer on my face, she shook her head slightly. “I won’t forgive you for bullying me. No matter how much…” She licked her lips, taunting me with that plump, pink flesh, wet and begging for me to taste. “I won’t forgive you for being a bully, no matter how much you’re trying to dupe me into thinking you’re nice again.”

“Fine,” I growled. “Hold a grudge. I don’t care.” Pressing against her, I relished how she breathed faster, turned on and fraught with this tension snapping between us. “I still want you.”

“I’m not going to fall for this act.” She narrowed her eyes, stubborn with so much fire, I couldn’t resist her.

“It’s not an act.”

“I don’t believe?—”

I silenced her with a kiss. Lunging forward and sealing my mouth against hers, I stole her breath and kissed her like I’d been fantasizing about. Like I’d fucking dreamed about. It wasn’t a lie. I wanted this girl so damn badly.

She froze for a second, maybe too stunned to respond. But as her fingers curled toward mine as I held her hand above her head and pushed my hips toward hers to grind her against the bookcase, she moved those sassy lips along mine in a clumsy brush.

From arguing one moment to kissing her the next, I’d stunned her. I’d stunned myself. The shock of finally acting on this and going for her was too thrilling to accept.

When I backed up, torturing myself with giving up this kiss, I stared into her eyes, so full of fire and desire.

And loathing.

“I hate you,” she whispered.

“Liar.” I grinned before I dipped in and kissed her again, harder this time, and she moaned with need.

This time, she pushed with enough force that I let her go. She scurried aside, blushing and not looking up at me, and that was when it hit me.

I gripped her wrist and pulled her back to the opposite side of the aisle until her back was against the frame again.

“Eli,” she warned.

I caged her in again, too determined to prove her wrong. Shewaspissed. But not at me. It seemed like she was mad at herself for wanting me at all. “You’ve never been kissed.”

It was obvious in her initial surprise. It was evident in her sloppy response.

The pink on her cheeks proved it too. “I don’t need you to point that out.” She glared at me. “I thought you said you were done bullying me and making fun of?—”

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