Page 78 of Intense
“Words are pointless to me. People lie. You can never trust what comes out of someone’s mouth. Actions are the only thing I believe. So, I dare you, show me how you really feel about your husband. Not with tears, not with venom on your tongue. Fucking show me.”
My fist clenches at my side. Heat coils in my gut. It’s a mix of rage and desperation. It’s how I’ve always lived, the only way I know how.
Everyone always leaves. My parents got sent to jail for fucking murder when I was twelve. Leaving me in a foster home until I was eighteen. No funding for college. No home. Nothing. The two people in the world who were meant to protect me were too busy trying to fund their schemes to even think about me. I’ll never forgive them.
I don’t even think. My body moves on instinct.
Before I know what I’m doing, my fist collides with his throat. Hard.
The sound that leaves his mouth is half-choke, half-growl.
His grin spreads slowly and twistedly, like he’s been waiting for this.
“There she is. The real Dr. Miller,” he taunts, eyes gleaming.
He claps; it’s so loud it makes me flinch.
My hands tremble at my sides.
I just throat-punched my boss.
On hospital grounds.
“Oh, come on. I’m not going to get you fired. You think that’s what I want? If I wanted you gone, I could have done that years ago.”
I swallow the lump in my throat, my whole body shaking with the weight of it all.
“What do you want from me? Why do we keep playing these stupid games?” Now I’m practically yelling at him. Great, throat-punching and yelling at my boss. All in the span of two minutes.
His eyes soften, but only a fraction.
He steps forward, brushing his thumb along my lip. My breath hitches. My knees weaken.
I think Dr. Quinn is making me lose my mind.
“The answer isn’t quite that simple.”
“But you hate me,” I say.
“And you hate me.”
It’s quite clear that isn’t the truth from either of us. His hand drops to my hip, curling into the soft curve there like it’s his. Like he has every right.
“Do you believe that lust and hate can’t walk the same line, temptress?”
My skin erupts with shivers. My lungs seize.
His breath ghosts my mouth.
My whole body screams with want. With conflict. With everything I’ve spent years burying.
He’s taking over everything.
And then?—
“Kiss me and find out,” I whisper breathlessly.
He’s done it. He’s broken me.
