Page 28 of His Ruthless Obsession

What I don’t expect to see is my cousin sitting on the divan part of the sectional couch, a pensive look on her face… while Nella paces back and forth in front of her. I blink at the sight, taking in Nella’s obvious distress from the way her arms are tucked around herself.

She pops her head up, mouth opening to say something to Ava when she notices me.

She stops short and blinks.

I smirk. “Hello.”

What I don’t expect is for her to answer me, scowling, “Where the hell have you been?!”

CHAPTERELEVEN

Iwatched the clock tick by, minutes stretching into hours while I waited for Killian to get back from his meeting with my father.

I expected him to take maybe an hour or two—God knew my father was a talker when he was in the mood to lecture someone. Then the time started to wane past three and a half hours; that’s when the worry began setting in.

He raises a single brow at me, letting go of the door so that it can slam shut behind him.

He treads over to us slowly. “Missed me, Nella? I’m quite the busy man, what can I say.”

Next to me, Ava lets out a soft scoff. “Is that your opening line?”

I ignore her, pressing my shoulders back. Killian stops in front of me and looms over me. I run my eyes over his angular face, taking in his dark eyes that seem to suck all of the light out of the room. He doesn't look hurt. If anything, he looks rather pleased with himself.

“Well?” he prompts when my silence continues.

“What happened at the meeting? What did my father say?” I run my eyes over his body again, ignoring the way the heat in my stomach kicks up. “Did he threaten you?”

I feel a hand cup my jaw, bringing my focus back up to his face. Killian tilts my head to the side, angling me into a kiss. I can’t help but suck in a startled breath. I wasn’t expecting that.

I try not to lean into him but can’t help the way our mouths fit together almost perfectly. He runs his tongue along the seam of my lips, thankfully pulling back before I actually give in and let him explore every inch of me like he did earlier.

I know that my cheeks must be red because he lets out a soft laugh. He sounds satisfied with what he’s done to me with just a simple kiss.

“Can you two get a room?” Ava grumbles at us, lifting herself up from the sectional and tossing the remote down onto the cushion.

I glance over at her, pulling myself from Killian’s grip completely to disentangle us. Ava heads out of the living room, disappearing somewhere around the corner. The sound of a door opening and shutting firmly is the only thing that confirms that she’s gone.

I wring my fingers together, trying to ease away the tension that I can feel building between Killian and I again. I need to remember to be complacent with him, as much as I can, in order to build up enough trust between us so that he doesn’t suspect me of anything.

Getting distracted by his touch is thelastthing that I need.

I pull in a breath and look up at him again. “I’m glad you made it back okay.”

Surprisingly, he merely blinks at me.

I continue on. “I… wanted to apologize for earlier. I shouldn’t have gotten heated like I did.”

He lets out a small ‘hm’. His eyes narrow on me, darting around to take in my features.

I stick my hand out, glancing down at it to make sure it isn’t shaking.

“Can we call a truce?”

“A truce?” he mimics.

I nod. “To being friends… now that it seems like I’ll be staying here—for the time being.”

He folds his hand over mine, yanking me forward hard enough to cause me to stumble into his chest. An arm wraps around my waist, hand sneaking down to cup my ass cheek. I only have a moment to think before Killian’s lips are on mine again.

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