Page 85 of Undertow

That also means she isn’t missing my hints that I’m not interested. She’s choosing to ignore them.

“So you’re going to pretend what happened earlier was nothing?” she says in a chilly tone.

I glance over to meet cool warning in her eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

“We practically had sex on the pool deck, Roman. In front of the entire damn resort.”

“We were playing roles.”

“I’ve done this many times. I can tell the difference between an act and real chemistry. You want me.”

“Then, you’ve never worked with an operative as good as I am.”

She winces, her gaze going cold. “So, you’re trying to tell me you felt nothing. What about your dick? Wasthatacting too? Because it sure felt like it was enjoying our time in Miami together.”

Residual heat fires through me when her hand replays the moment by clenching and unclenching at her side.

She’s not wrong about that part.

I shrug and turn back to the mirror. “I can’t help biology, sweetheart.”

“Fuck you!” she shrieks, flying at me.

Her surprise attack sends me crashing into the towel bar on the wall. Pain spreads along my side, and I catch her wrist to shove her back when she goes to hit me.

“What is your problem?” I snap at her. “This is a job, Scarlett. There’s nothing confusing or ambiguous about any of it. Out there, we’re a couple. In here, we’re nothing.”

“Nothing?! I know what I felt. What I feel now. And it’s not nothing! I’ve never felt this way about anyone. I’ve neverwantedanyone the way I want you. Don’t you get that?”

My body tenses beneath her pleading gaze. But it’s anger, not desire fueling my rigid muscles.

“Yeah? Well, sorry to disappoint you,princess, but it’s not my problem that this is the first time in your entire damn life you’ve heard the word no.”

Her jaw drops.

Mine tightens as the answer to my nagging question finally penetrates the thick air around us.

What exactly is my objection to Scarlett McArthur?

Nothing, except that she represents the one piece of myself her sadistic father doesn’t own.

I can’t say no to him, but I sure as hell can say no to his daughter.

No.

No.

Fucking never.

“I hate you,” she hisses.

“Probably better that way. I’m going to sleep.” I brush past her. “On the couch.”

I feel the burn of her cold glare in my back, but it doesn’t matter. She can’t hurt me unless I let her.

It’s the last encounter I believe that’s true.

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