Page 39 of Hate Mates

I rolled my neck, heat spanning my chest. She knew I liked her, and she still went out with Pete?“Or at least I thought you did.”

“I did.”Past tense.“NowI hate you.”She flinched.“So go.”

Her bottom lip wobbled.“You hate me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”I released the doorknob.“You made me promise we’d always be friends. I kept up my end of the deal, Sutton. Did you?”

“I wanted to?—”

“But you didn’t.”I scraped a hand over my lower jaw.“I got fucked over. And now you want what from me, exactly?”

“I would have never dated him if you’d just told me how you felt.”

“You know what your problem is, Sutton?”I edged her way, practically blowing fire as I glared down at her.“You’re so attention starved you’ll put yourself in danger just to scratch an itch. I used to think you had everything under control, but it was all an act, wasn’t it? From the jump, you performed for everyone, and now the consequences have bitten you on the ass. Grow up. We’re not in high school anymore.”

“I would have chosen you,”she said faintly, rolling her lips together.“If you had chosen me, I would have chosen you.”Her misty eyes lifted.“Over and over again.”

“You need to go.”

Plucking her courage, she stepped into me, placing a hand on my abdomen, and I couldn’t compel myself to tear back. She flexed on the toes of her shoes, her lips meeting mine, and where I stood stock-still, she drove the kiss until she was done.“I understand.”

But how could she? How could she ever grasp how long I’d wanted her for? How desperate I’d been to know how warm and soft her lips were? That kiss cracked something inside of me that I couldn’t seal back up. I followed her out into the rain, into thelavender field she cut across, the rain drowning my pursuit, and just as she moved to clear the floral haven, I pulled her into me and sealed my mouth to hers, dragging her to the wet, soaked earth beneath us. I worshipped her with my hands, my mouth, my tongue. I warmed her with my body, my cum, and offered her cries like prayers to a higher power in hopes they’d take mercy on us both because Peter would find out, and when he did…

He repaid us both with a decision I had to live with forever. He’d lured us out into the woods, the branding iron my dad had made in his hands before it was in mine. Sutton bound on the ground, mascara smeared, her eyes alive with fear.

He gave me a choice:

Kill the woman I love.

Or kill the one thing she valued most about herself.

She’d begged me to end it, and maybe I should have. I would have followed her into the next life. But the fear I wouldn’t find her, that I’d be trapped in a purgatory while she roamed the afterlife without me, kept me from making the choice she had wanted me to make.

I didn’t blame Sutton for leaving. But I blamed her for leaving me behind.

Her voice lulled me back to the present, a sneer warping her pretty mouth.“You don’t get a say in what I do.”

“Again. Semantics.”

She didn’t bite. Her pulse surged in her throat, the stretch of skin punching under the warm glow of the end table lamp.

“You’re as crazy as he is.” She re-secured the towel around her upper body.

“Was,” I corrected.

That got her attention. “What?”

“I’m as crazy as he was.”

She frowned, the implication escaping her. “He’s missing.” Sutton sucked back a loud breath. “Has been for awhile.”

“I’m sure he’s on a bender somewhere. He’ll turn up.”

I smiled. I wouldn’t count on that.

“Can you go now?” Sutton tipped her head in the stairwell’s direction. “I’m tired.”

“So, let’s go to bed.”

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