Page 114 of Role Play
Lucy
We need to talk,” Ash said and took a step toward me, closing the small amount of space that was between us. His chest moved up and down with each breath, nearly brushing against my hard nipples. Stupid, traitorous nipples that pierced towardhim.
The door behind us shut quietly causing a breeze to pull a bit of my hair free from the messy ponytail. My hand trembled with nerves as I lifted it to my face and tucked the stray hair behind my ear. “We really don’t. You made it perfectly clear what you thought of me earlier today—” The words tasted bitter in my mouth as I said them, cracking with flavor at the back of my tongue. Pain slammed into me at the memory. That he could ever think I was sleeping my way to the top. Daddy dom. I swallowed, hating him for that. Hating him so, so much. But as I looked up into the hard lines of his face, it wasn’t hate that consumed me. It was another emotion entirely. That dreaded four letter ‘L’word.
Well, fuck that. He didn’t deserve my love. Just like Dad didn’t deserve Mom’s. And if this is what love did? If love caused pain and fighting and made people say hurtful things, digging their dirty fingers into bloody wounds, I wanted nothing to do withit.
“I was wrong,” Ash said quietly. “I was jealous of what I thought I saw and I spoke cruelly to protect myself. I’m sorry.” Ash leaned in, pressing his hands against the wall above my head. A palm rested on either side of my ears, caging me in as his forehead creased in thought. From the shadows, his eyes tilted to mine, dark and hooded and shielding any bit of his thoughts that I could potentiallyread.
My heart thundered in my chest with wildly sporadic beats. Something about Ash filled a hollow area of my soul that had been growing and festering like a cavity since Dad left. Around Ash, the pain was numbed. He soothed the history with his touch. Mended the wound with his words. Except today? Today, his comment had brought it all crashingback.
The cavity throbbed inside me, pulsing hard with loneliness. It was my weakness. But it was also my shield. One that I wasn’t ready to drop and forfeit yet. A hard laugh cracked through my tensed lips. “Is that the best you’ve got? You were wrong and you’re sorry?” I ducked out from under his arms as his expression cemented into shock. “You basically called me awhore.”
He sucked in a breath, pushing off from the wall to face me. “Ididn’t—”
“You did.” Tension stretched between us like gum around a finger. His mouth parted to speak, but I cut him off. I couldn’t hear anymore. Couldn’t hear another apology. Because the next one could potentially work; could potentially earn my forgiveness and I couldn’t let that happen. Couldn’t let him derail me. “Not that you were wrong. Maybe Iamsleeping my way to the top,” I bluffed. It was the only way I knew how to ensure Ash would walk away. Leave me be. Because above all, I knew he didn’t share. He was possessive and passionate and the thought of me with another man would shove him in the other direction. Push him away from me. “After all,” I continued, “how else would you explain how a girl right out of college landed the assistant costume position on a major motionpicture?”
Anger snaked across his features, tightening the skin around his eyes. “Don’t say that. We both know it’s not true.” His hand lifted, those calloused fingertips tracing a fluttered line down myjaw.
The air between us swirled with chaotic energy, tightening the emotional grip he had on me. I grabbed Andrea’s ID and slapped it into his chest. “Give this to Andrea for me. Not that she probably even needs it.” Then, spinning on my heels, I stomped toward the same unmarked door I had enteredthrough.
“Luciana Blair Rodriguez,” Ash boomed. “Do not take anotherstep.”
Blair.
Heknew.
