Page 12 of Dragon Bodyguard
Her chest was heaving in the most treacherous way, her pulse racing with the contradictions within her. Her brain yelling at her to simply walk away; her heart telling her to wait just a moment longer.
She didn’t know what she wanted.
She didn’t know what she had hoped would happen if she came here and disturbed him, confronted him with everything he’d left unsaid, but this couldn’t have been it.
Could it?
“Ididn’t wantyou?” she asked. “You made it perfectly clear that you wanted to focus on yourself.That’swhat broke us apart.”
She had no wish to tell him that it was her stepmother who had made what he wanted perfectly clear to her. She had never faltered in her stubborn sense of duty to her father, and she wouldn’t do anything that might be construed as disloyal, even if that anything was simply telling the truth.
Her father and her stepmother had taken her in, and they’d taken care of her in their own way. She didn’t want to give Misha any further ammunition against them possibly meddling in their relationship. They couldn’t have. He must have misunderstood.
Besides, wasn’t him admitting that he’d spoken to her stepmother no more than further proof that he’d asked her to deliver the message to Kristina of how he was breaking things off?
She decided now was not the time to dwell on it.
“Yes, I did want to focus on myself,” he agreed, taking a step back from her. She threw her arms out, meaningfully. She knew she’d been right. “I wanted a career. Something to occupy my time. Something worthwhile. You knew that going into it with me.”
She scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest again.
“So?”
“So, why are you holding it against me? Why didn’t you see my ambition as a good thing? Why did it make you—?” He stopped himself, turning from her, annoyance flaring.
“Make me what?” she prompted.
“What the hell are we even talking about it for?” he asked.
“Why the hell wouldn’t we talk about it?” she shot back.
“So, this is why you came here?”
“Yes, I came here foryou. All foryou,”she yelled, the sarcasm like honey on her tongue. He was such an idiot. “I’ve been heartbroken forthirty yearsand here, finally, was my chance to let you know exactly how much of an asshole I think you are, and, of course, I had to take it. Me showing up here is all aboutyou!”
She was raising her voice again, putting her hands to his chest at the final exclamation and pushing him away from her hard enough to make him take half a step back. No more than that, though. He was like a damn tree, planted to the ground. His body hard with muscle.
She shouldn’t have touched him.
“You were never heartbroken,” he said, the coldness back. “You’re too heartless.”
She stared at him, then drew her hand back and slapped him hard across the cheek.
His eyes didn’t leave hers and when he took a step forward, she was still too surprised at her action to move away. His hands clasped her wrist, pinning her arms along her sides as his face hovered half an inch in front of her. His voice was tight, his tone hard when he said, “You’re going to listen to me.”
She tried to writhe free, but he had her in a hold like a vice.
“Let me go.”
“No,” he said simply. “I want you to listen.”
“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. You’rehurtingme.”
“Then stopmoving.”
She glared at him, wanted to knee him in the groin but knew it wouldn’t do much. Dragons didn’t feel pain the same way others did, and trained dragons felt even less. She should have known he’d be no good for her. She should have known it the second she saw him. He was an emotionless shell, and he was only providing further evidence of it, chest almost connecting with hers, hands still grasping her wrists. Hard.
She felt his breath across her cheek, her gaze remaining on his, refusing to be the one to break eye contact.
