Page 317 of Now and Forever

She shook her head, stubborn as a goose. “No. I don’t want to, Cal.”

“Get inside!”

“Callum. I. Said. No.”

She was testing my limits and I was about to explode like a ticking time bomb if she decided to play stubborn. “Don’t defy me, Stella!” I roared, yanking the door open, past caring that she was fuming and throwing curse words at me. I ignored her and shoved her purse inside the car. The road was starting to get wet, but I was beyond caring about my underdressed state as I failingly tried to act calm. Holding the door wider this time, I directed her again for the umpteenth time. “Get inside, Stella.”

“You have no right to manhandle me. No. Right. Do you hear?” She screamed, unmoving.

In normal circumstances, I wouldn’t be so brutish, but this wasn’t one of them. Planting both of my hands around her sides, I lifted and carried her before gently dumping her tenacious self on the seat. Ignoring her hisses and growls, I securely placed the seatbelt across her tensed body and then slammed the door shut then went to the driver’s side.

Stella was furious, but she was unbending. What else was there to do? All I cared about was for her to get in the goddamned vehicle and drive back to my home so we could sort this out rationally. No matter what happened after this, I couldn’t for the life of me let her leave in this condition.

This was Stella… Richard’s sister… the woman I vowed to take care of, which I wasn’t doing exceptionally well in that department.

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