Page 18 of Malicious Wedding

The Uber takes me to my apartment. I catch a glimpse of Carson’s guys getting into a nearby car, but I lose sight of them soon after. Once I’m at my place, I hurry up the steps, unlock the door, slam it shut, bang the bolt closed, and flip on the lights. I’m ready to get in the bath when a scream nearly rips itself from my throat.

“I expected you home sooner,” Carson says. He’s standing in my kitchen in the dark, drinking a glass of wine.

Chapter9

Ash

Icurse mindlessly for about thirty seconds before I get control of myself. My heart’s racing and adrenaline’s lighting up my veins. “What thehellis wrong with you?” I demand, glaring at the very attractive intruder casually sipping from my best glass, the one I stole from the fancy wine bar that opened down the street from Smoke in a fit of rage.

“Making sure you got here okay. Drink.”

“No. Thank you. Actually, scratch that, I don’t thank you. Please get out.”

He shakes his head. “We need to have a conversation.”

I groan, squeezing my eyes shut. Maybe, just maybe, if I open them again slowly, he’ll disappear. Maybe I’m finally cracking and Carson’s a figment of my imagination.

But no, still there. Still hot as sin. Still staring at me with unrestrained hunger. Sick bastard.

“There’s nothing to talk about.” I clench my jaw, so pissed I could burst—and finally, I decide to give up. “Just go away.” I storm past him, down the hall, and into my room.

I hear his footsteps on the floorboards as he follows. I throw my stuff on the bed, brush past him again, and slam the bathroom door shut. I lock the handle and turn on the water.

His voice comes through the door. “You’re really going to take a bath right now?”

“I think today of all days I deserve it. Normally, I’d have some wine, but—”

The door unlocks and opens a fraction. I flinch back, half-undressed, wearing on my bra and panties. “Here you are,” Carson says. He holds a filled glass of wine into the room as I frantically try to find the right pose where my hands and legs can cover my sexy bits. Well, my bits, I don’t know how sexy they are right now.

“You can’t just barge into the damn bathroom!”

“I’m not barging. If I wanted to do that, I’d be in there, and you’d be very naked.”

“What, I don’t, you’re just—” I have to get control of my stupid brainless vagina because all it wants is to wrap itself around that man’s mouth and let him make me forget all my troubles for a while. Bad vagina, very, very bad. “Give me that.”

I snatch the wine away.

The door quietly closes.

I stand there, seething, take a long drink, then strip off my underwear. I’m blushing, imagining Carson, that enormous, beautiful model standing on the other side of the flimsy wooden door that’s apparently useless. I slip into the water, trembling slightly.

“I know you hate me right now.” His voice is soft, muffled by the plywood. “But regardless of how you feel, Iamyour best option.”

“I think my best option is to go get a guard dog and a gun.” I sink lower, getting comfortable. “A big dog and a bigger gun.”

“You’d shoot yourself. You’re not a gun girl.”

He’s got a point there. I hate guns. “Better than letting you drag me around.”

“I have a house in Beacon Hill. Actually, it’s two houses with the walls knocked down. There’s an entire guest wing you can stay in.”

I hesitate. Beacon Hill isextremelyfancy. It’s like living in old-world Boston, but with amenities. And an entire wing…

“How about you let me have the house and you can go stay in a hotel.”

He chuckles. “That won’t work for me.”

“I prefer my own space.”

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