Page 59 of Always Knew It Was You

I blink. “You mean when I defended you?

“I didn’t ask you to defend me,” he shouts. “All you had to do was play the role. Smile, agree with whatever the fuck he says, and be the sweet blueblooded granddaughter-in-law. Was that so hard?”

“Are you kidding me?” I yell back. “Are you actually mad at me right now?”

“Yes! Because of you, I might have just lost the only chance at getting out of my father’s trap!”

“Because of…” I laugh incredulously. “Oh, grow up, you jerk. You crazy asshole, your grandfather was probably never going to give you that loan. He’s toying with you, don’t you see that? He enjoys kicking you around. You talk all this big talk about how you hate that your dad is trying to control you and yet your grandfather is doing the same thing and you’re somehow okay with that?”

“Who said I was okay with it? I was handling it. I don’t need you to defend me like I’m a little boy.”

“Noted! I’d be crazy to ever defend you again.” I head to the door, only for him to snatch my arm and pull me right back.

“Where are you going?” he asks heatedly.

“Anywhere but around you.” The words hiss out of my mouth as I stare at his glittering eyes. It fills me with such wrath.

Oh, I hate him so much. I can’t believe I tried to stick up for him, can’t believe that I thought he was hurt by that “tainted blood” comment. Scratch that, hewashurt by the comment. And now he’s trying to take that hurt out on me.

But I’m no one’s fucking punching bag.

“I don’t need this,” I tell him. “I have a bunch of shit going on in my life, serious shit. I don’t need to be here playing this game with you.”

“And yet here you are.” His voice is quieter now, menacingly so, yet somehow also sultry. A different kind of heat is starting to pulse between us.

Shit.

It’s always so annoying how quickly anger can turn to lust.

I start struggling to get out of his hold even as my body betrays me.

“Let go.”

“You drive me crazy,” he says, as though I didn’t speak. “Absolutely crazy. What am I going to do with you, Carly Huntley?”

He sounds like he’s talking more to himself as he pulls me closer, his breath passing over my lips.

“Don’t you dare—” I snarl. But he does.

He seals it with a kiss.

I wish I could say that I fought him. And to be fair, I bite his lip at first, punishing him for his audacity. He jerks back for a second.

Only to smile and kiss me again.

Crazy jerk.

Maybe it’s the smile that did it, or maybe I’m crazy too. Because I kiss him back.

Asshole.

I rip his shirt off savagely, driven by a primal need to possess him. I don’t know what comes over me. A second ago, I hated him. I still hate him.

But for some reason, I can’t get enough of him.

Maybe it’s because as his lips devour mine, as his taste floods my mouth, I can’t forget the look on his face. That shattered, hurt look when his grandfather called his blood tainted, the way his eyes avoided mine for just a second as though he had something to be ashamed of.

He has nothing to be ashamed of, except for the fact that he’s an asshole. But even that isn’t enough to stop me from kissing him.

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