Page 3 of The CEO I Hate

Liam’s eyebrows drew together so tightly I thought a vein in his forehead might pop. His voice dropped half a register, and suddenly my spine forgot how to behave. “If Miles is supposed to be me, you might want to work on your accuracy. He’s a little too soft.”

I shrugged. “I dialed down the emotional repression for the sake of the plot. You’re welcome.”

He scoffed. “I’ve seen more depth in a cereal mascot.”

I hid a smirk, loving his ongoing annoyance over Miles. Really, he barely had a reason to get worked up over it. Only a handful of people who readHeart and Hustleeven knew Miles was based on someone real.

And even fewer people knew that person was Liam—CEO of VeriTV, billionaire, and the guy I’d had an unfortunate crush on for way too many years. Creating Miles’s character had been my own tiny taste of sweet, sweet revenge, and Liam definitely had it coming. Some might even call it creative justice.

That was me. I called it that.

“So you see the likeness?” I said, my voice back to that syrup-sweet tone.

He growled, but his eyes didn’t move from my lips. “Can we skip to the part where you realize this isn’t worth my time?”

God, why was he like this? “Did your assistant give you a double shot of asshole this morning?”

“You think this is funny?” His nostrils flared. Just a little. Not enough for most people to notice. But I wasn’t most people.

I narrowed my eyes. “No, I think what’s hilarious is the fact that you don’t know how a line works.”

The comments from the crowd started up again.

“Typical! Rich guys think rules don’t apply!”

“Let the man through! He’s probably late to ruin the economy.”

“In case it wasn’t obvious, they’d like you to know that the back of the line is over there,” I said, gesturing with my thumb. “This isn’t your private jet.”

Liam bristled even more as the crowd’s heckling kicked up another notch. His annoyance seeped out in the heat of his stare. If I was drawing him for my webcomic, he’d have steam coming out hisnostrils right about now. “Do you always have to cause a spectacle?”

“You started it, Mr. Rules-Don’t-Apply.”

He huffed, running a hand through his hair, which was just unfair. He had no business looking this hot when he was worked up.

“Wait, hold it right there,” I said, lifting my phone and snapping a picture of him.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Getting real-time inspiration for later. The lighting in here highlights your scowl perfectly. I like Miles to be as accurate as possible.” His face turned stormy as he towered over me. He’d always been tall, but standing this close, I had to crane my neck to look him in those blue, blue eyes. His hair was longer than he normally wore it, long enough to run my fingers through. My pulse quickened at that thought, and I beat it back into a dark hole.

“Delete that.”

I lowered my phone, pretending to examine the photo. “I don’t think I will, Smiles.”

“Donotcall me that.”

“But it’s really some of my best work.” Miles plus the fact Liam wouldn’t know how to smile even if the Joker himself came and carved one on his face…Calling himSmilesjust made sense. “It suits you so well.”

“If that’s your best work, it’s no surprise the studios haven’t been banging down your door,” he growled.

My jaw tightened. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, please. What was the last real writing job you had?”

“The webcomic is real writing,” I said, my cheeks heating.

He leaned toward me, close enough that I could have counted every piece of stubble on his jaw.God, he smelled so good it was unfair, like cedar and linen and something darker I didn’t want to name. “Sure. If brooding bad boys and flat stereotypes are all you can pull off, it counts.”

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