Page 33 of Between Passion and Revenge: Part Two
I realize that there isn’t an earthquake hitting the building, and the frantic shaking comes from my body.
“Sweetness?” he asks, his face morphing into an expression I know to be concern.
Concern. Concern!
“Do you need som?—”
He never finishes the sentence, because my balled-up fist clocks him right in his too-angular jaw.
EIGHT
STORM
Shae just punched me in the face.
Hard.
And all I can do is smile.
Because anger like that? It means she still feels something.
Sure, she’s just hauled off and punched me dead in the mouth, but I don’t focus on that.
I focus on the fact that her being so angry at me that she’d resort to physical violence means one thing: She still cares.
She feels something for me, because if she’d moved on or only felt apathy, she would have greeted me with polite coolness, not a fist to the face.
What her hit telegraphs with stunning clarity is she has deep, hot emotions for me, and that has me on the fucking moon.
“Liv!” her assistant shouts, and that causes me to frown. Liv? Since when does she go by Liv?
Shae hisses through her teeth and shakes her right hand, taking a step back but not removing her hot gaze from my face.
Damn, my cheeks hurt from how wide I’m grinning like a maniac.
The assistant rushes over to Shae, and the love of my life sucks her teeth and looks at her hand. It doesn’t look like it’s swelling from my vantage point, although I’ll have to teach her to throw a better punch.
When the assistant reaches Shae’s side, it must shake her out of whatever rage spiral she’s engaging with in her brain because she hisses with stunning clarity, “Get. Out.”
No one in the room moves, but I hear a snort—from Axel, no doubt—which causes Shae to blink several times in rapid succession.
“Sure, Shae,” I say, my voice bright. “Axel, Riale, why don’t you escort Miss… I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.” I direct the last part to the assistant.
“Melissa,” she blurts out, then rolls her lips inward with a side-glance to her boss. Shae’s face is like stone.
“Melissa. Axel, Riale, why don’t you and Miss Melissa go down to grab coffee for us?”
“Coffee? If you don’t get thefuck—” Shae chokes off the rest of her sentence.
I give my most charming grin to Melissa, and she blushes. Shae must clock her cheeks pinkening, because she spins on the girl and shouts, “You’re fired!”
I grimace while Melissa drops her hands, her iPad clacking to the floor.
“What? Ms. Riv?—”
“Whythe fuckwould you schedule a meeting withthis person? You should— How the fuck— Just get the hell out of my office!” she screams, spitting each word as if she were chewing on shit.
“B-but, Ms. Rivers! You emailed me last night and asked me to?—”
