Page 12 of Enemy Ex's Secret Baby

“I was just making a joke.”

“It’s always jokes with you, Axel! A joke here, a joke there, and yet underneath is the insidious–”

“Oh god, here we go. Let me dust off your soapbox for you,” I say quietly, crouching down and pretending to dust off an imaginary platform for her to climb up on and spew her nonsense.

Gillian’s hands clench. “You–” She stops, looking over her shoulder, making sure her voice can’t be heard down the hall. Then, she takes a few steps toward me. “You will never take me seriously, will you?”

“I never said that.”

“You don’t have to. Men like you, it’s obvious in every word.”

I might act like a corporate robot, but I still feel the sting of her words. “Men like me?”

“Yes! All you care about is the bottom line. You don’t care about–”

“’Community Care’?’” I ask mockingly, air quoting. “Look, Gillian, your buzzwords are losing gravity.” Not that they ever had it.

Gillian huffs. “I’m not just buzzwords. Did you know that every day, we lose six thousand acres of open land to people like you building condos that will sit empty for years? There are over ninety thousand units in LA sitting empty while under forty thousand people are unhoused. Think about that!”

I swallow. “It doesn’t work like that, and you know it.”

“I don’t care if it doesn’t work like that. It should work like that. And I’m fighting for it to work like that. Trying to show my daughter that our voices matter and that we can make change when people like–” Her eyes focus in on me. Another step toward me. Closer. Somehow closer than ever even though we’re still a foot apart. “Do you even care about anything other than making money, Axel?”

“Lots of things.”

“Really? That’s news to me.”

I will not stand here and let her berate me anymore. I am still a human being even if my goals to her are sort of demonic. I step toward her, one more little half step so I’m looking down into her brown eyes, challenging her. “Gillian, you don’t get anything by being good or nice or even believing in the right things. You know this. I’m not willing to suffer just to do the right thing. I’m genuinely sorry that my work is at your expense, really, but the things I care about are in direct opposition to what you care about. You’ve made it clear that the measure of a good human is being unwilling to sacrifice or bend for the things you want. Why should I do that for you, then?”

Gillian’s upper lip curls up in contempt and then she grits her teeth. “God, I hate you.”

Then, without warning, she grabs both sides of my face and kisses me harshly. I have no willpower to resist her, not when all the memories come flooding back.

She pulls away and then repeats right into my mouth. “I hate you so much.”

“Oh, yeah?” I wrap my arms around her waist, hands splayed out against her lower back and pull her hips flush to mine. “Then show me, Gillian. Show me how much you hate me.”

5

GILLIAN

Why did he have to walk into my home in the dark of night, looking so goddamn sexy as he took care of my daughter and put her to bed? Why despite every piece of me despising him and everything he stands for does my body light up at the idea of him touching me?

Why do I want Axel Hitchins so bad?

Hatefuck is a term I’ve always abhorred. I’ve never experienced the propulsion to throw myself at someone because I despised them so much.

Except with this man, because here I am, with my arms around Axel in my living room, desperate to fuck the shit out of him.

His hands slink down from my lower back, grabbing a handful of my ass. His head tilts back, teeth bared, veins protruding in his neck. “Goddammit.”

I’m not wasting time trying to contemplate what’s happening. I kiss him again harshly and let him catch up to me.

Axel’s tongue coaxes my lips open until I feel like he might devour me. Suddenly, he forces me back harshly against the wall. I gasp and almost melt into his arms.

“Why do you have to stand there and piss me off, Gillian?” Axel whispers tensely and then presses a line of kisses up my neck until his lips reach my ear. “Why can’t you just back off and–

“You know I don’t back down from a challenge.”

---