Page 12 of Twisted (Never After)
A smirk pulls at the corner of my mouth. I wasn’t sure she’d ever mention it. Surprisingly, I like that she is. “Don’t you have more important things to worry about?”
Her eyes narrow, those dark amber jewels spearing through me. “Did you have something to do with putting this ridiculous idea into my father’s head?” she hisses.
“You’ll need to be more specific,” I drawl.
“I think you know exactly what I’m talking about.” Her finger reaches out and pokes my chest, her perfectly manicured red nail striking against the black of my dress shirt. “You’ve been whispering bullshit in my father’s ears for years. Don’t play dumb now.”
Removing my hand from my pocket, I reach up and brush her away like a piece of lint, adopting an air of boredom, even though my nerves are vibrating with discomfort. I don’t like to be touched unless I initiate the touching. “If he’s done something to upset you, I promise, gattina, it has nothing to do with me.” A dark cloud flashes through her features.
“What is it, Julian?” she purrs, her body a hairsbreadth away from mine. “Can’t handle a little competition from a woman? Afraid of what I’ll do when Sultans becomes mine and I take out thetrash?”
A laugh bubbles from my throat even as annoyance pricks at my edges, her words stabbing at wounds I don’t want to acknowledge are there.
She must see the change in my demeanor and has realized she’s stepped too far, because her confidence drops when I move in close until our bodies are almost flush against each other, angry little breaths puffing out of her perfect little mouth. She gasps, stumbling back like she needs to get as far away as possible.
My hand reaches out and grasps her wrist tightly, pulling her in until my shadow towers over her ample frame, engulfing her in darkness. I’m not sure why I do it, other than the fact that I can’tnot, as if something has suddenly tethered us together, urging me to touch her or fuck her or shut her the hell up so she never speaks about Sultans again.
She’s infuriating in a way that I can’t control, but touching her makes her uncomfortable. I can see it in the way she squirms. It makes me want to do it often, just so I can assert my power and make sure I keep the upper hand.
I glide my fingers slowly up the bare skin of her arm, across her shoulder, over her exposed collarbone, up the expanse of her neck.
She swallows, her throat moving beneath the pads of my thumb.
“If I wished for it,” I murmur, leaning in until our noses touch, “I could make you need nothingbutme.”
She scoffs, turning her face away.
The urge is there to pull her back, to force her to stay still untilIallow her to move, but I resist the temptation, releasing her and straightening as I run my palm down the front of my shirt. “I promise…” I pause, reaching out and tapping my fingers against her cheek. “I’m not someone you want on your bad side.”
“You’re not someone I want onanyside,” she retorts.
“No?” I lift a brow. “Silly decision for such an educated girl.”
“You know, I think you might be the most arrogant man I’ve ever met.”
I laugh. “You don’t even know me.”
“I know enough,” she retorts. “I know that you’re a creep.”
“And you’re a spoiled brat.” I shrug. “But I’d still use you to my advantage if I could.”
Her head tilts to the side. “What?”
My heart speeds in my chest, making the cavity tighten as the thought that’s been itching my brain solidifies into a full- fledged idea. One that could solve everything.
Ali wants her to marry, not willing to leave anything to hisperfectdaughter unless she has a man to claim it, and I… I could be the one she marries.
I’ve thought of it before but brushed it off instead of allowing the plan to take root because while it wouldn’t be a hardship to have her in my bed, I’m afraid my ears would bleed from the annoyance of her voice, and my short fuse at putting up with her obnoxious attitude might not let her survive a single night.
But it would be a temporary annoyance and one that would solve almost all my problems. And now that she’s standing here in front of me, with my cock at half-mast and my mind whirling at the plan taking shape in my head, it sounds almost appealing.
Marry the girl, let the old man die, and then kill her and be done with it, inheriting everything without the bitch of a daughter attached to my side.
My spine straightens and I let my eyes drop down the length of her, looking at her for the first time as if she’s my prey and I’m ravenous to eat.
“Clearly, Ali’s done something to upset your fragile ego. And you said it yourself. He listens to me.”
“His biggest flaw, in my opinion.” She smirks.
