Page 72 of Accidental Groom
My throat closes. Grace’s chair scrapes across the floor. He didnot?—
“Fuckyou.” The words leave my mouth before I even realize I’m saying them. “Fuck you both.”
Elena’s hand finds mine, and before I can even catch up with what my body has chosen to do, I’m halfway to the door with Elena in tow, my hand tight around hers. Grace and Liam trail behind, but my heart is beating too wildly to pay too much attention to anything at all. I grab my coat from the closet, pass Elena hers, and drag her back out into the night.
Liam drives. I don’t trust myself to, Elena doesn’t know the way, and Grace was two glasses of wine deep. The air is leaden as Liam fumbles with the controls, his nerves getting the better of him in my car, but the abrupt stops only force me back to the present instead of lingering in my head for too long.
For the most part, no one speaks apart from the occasional reminder to Liam to use his turn signal.
When we park back up at Highcourt Hall, the only sound is the wind whipping through the trees and the faint beep as Liam locks the car before depositing the keys in my waiting hand. He starts walking toward the far side of the manor, and Grace hesitates, leaning in close to me for the briefest of seconds.
“I’d assume Elena’s had as bad a night as you have,” she murmurs. “Maybe don’t leave her alone tonight.”
She walks off, following Liam, before I can even get a reply in. I’m still burning, still furious, and the last thing I want is for Elena to see it — the best thing for her is, unfortunately, a night without me in it.
I shove the keys into my pocket and stalk across the gravel toward the house, avoiding everything altogether.
I only manage to get a few steps before her voice cuts through the silence.
“Harry?”
I hesitate. She makes me hesitate too easily.
“You’re just going towalk off?” she shouts. Her heels shift the gravel behind me. “Afterthat?”
I turn, slowly, watching as she stalks toward me, her jaw set.
“You haven’t said a word tomesince before we sat down for dinner.”
I open my mouth, poised to say something, but my mind is blank. I don’t know what to say to that.
She stops a few feet in front of me, her lips pursing, anger pulling her brows down in the center. “Do you expect me to ignore what you said?”
I swallow.Shit.“I wasn’t expecting you to ignore it.”
“Did you mean it?” She presses, jutting her chin up at me. “Are you falling in love with me? Or was that just a weapon to throw at them for being such—suchcunts?”
The words hit like a slap, even if that’s not how she means them.
I don’t let myself overthink it.
I move.
Gravel crunches between us, the floodlight kicking on, haloing her in light. She looks somewhere between angry and confused, her chest rising quickly with each breath.
I close the space. I don’t answer.
I kiss her instead.
It’s not polite, not careful — it’s a collision. I grasp her face in my hands, one sliding around to the back of her neck, holding her to me as I pry her lips open with my tongue, demanding entry. Her hands push against my chest for half a second before tightening in my jacket, pulling instead.
I shift, turning her, pressing her against the pillar by the front door of the east wing. She gasps into my mouth, her body melting and hardening all at once, her hands moving up, cupping the sides of my neck.
When I pull back, my ragged breath clouds between us, my lips hovering over hers.
“I meant it,” I admit, my voice low, my throat closing.
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