Page 85 of Strange Seduction
She turned her head toward me, her eyes fierce with anger behind them. “It doesn’t fucking feel like that. You’re acting like I’m somethingyou own.Como si fuera una maldita posesión.”
My breath hitched.
“Bullshit, Carmen. I don’t see you like that, and you know it. I never have.”
But I wasn’t sure she believed me. Fuck—part of me wasn’t sure I believed it anymore either.
The car swerved slightly as I changed lanes. For a second, I wished I could just pull over and stop this whole bullshit argument. This wasn’t what I wanted, but something about how she looked at me like she didn’t recognize me made me question everything I thought I knew about us.
She sighed. “Just forget it, Theo.”
“No,” I said, jaw tight. “We’re gonna talk about it. We have to.”
“Well, I don’t want to.”
“Stop being difficult. I can’t fix the problem if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s not just one problem, is it?”
I ignored that. We pulled into the hotel parking lot, tight-lipped, tension rolling off both of us as we waited for the valet.
“Why were you really in Vince’s office?” I asked, barely looking at her.
She mumbled a swear under her breath. “Not this shit again.”
“Yes,” I said aloud. “This again. Tell me why.”
“He invited me in.”
“I’m not satisfied with that answer.”
She shrugged so nonchalantly, I knew the next thing out of her mouth would be some shit that would piss me off more. “Well, that’s all I got for you.”
See?
“I’m really trying to understand your line of thinking, Carmen. Why him? Huh? Did we not just have an argument about this a few days ago?”
“Yeah,” she snapped, “around the same time I told you that I was working on something with Marcus, and you acted like you were okay with it. I asked you to trust me, and you said you would, but I guess we’re both full of shit.”
I gritted my teeth.
“I forgot I blocked Marcus,” I ground out. “But you didn’t forget what I said about Vince, did you? You went in there on purpose to get under my skin. You knew it would piss me off.”
“Of course I did,” she said flatly and in an overly sarcastic tone. “That’s exactly why I did it. No other reason. Just like you knew blocking Marcus would pissmeoff, but you still did it. So I guess we’re even.”
Ignoring the sarcastic shit she said to get under my skin, I fished out the truth. “We’reeven? So this is agameto you now? This shit you’re doing is about getting even? This is our relationship, Carmen! Our careers!”
“Oh, spare me the dramatics,” she snapped. “You really have the gall to talk to me about careers? You fucking blocked my boss!”
“He ain’t your boss for another week, Carmen! The fuck do you need to talk to the man so badly for?!”
“Because he’s helping me get my father out of jail!”
And with that, she shoved the door open and slammed it shut behind her. I stared after her for what felt like forever.
“Fuck.”
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