Page 87 of Entangled

“I think this was a mistake.” Eden pulls her hand out of mine, and I want to snatch it back. “I should go.”

But I catch her arm before she can run off, and she wheels around.

“Not happening.” Color is high in her cheeks, and her chest lifts in a quick rise-fall. “You’ve got your panties in a wad about something, and I want to know what it is.”

That’s sensitive, right?

“Charming,” she mutters, but I ignore her.

Crowding her, I press her back against the tree. “What’s the deal, Miss Manners? What’s got you afraid of the dark?”

That seems to trigger something.

Eden tries to shove me off, but I stay put. I want my answers, and she wouldn’t have dragged me out here if she didn’t want to give them to me.

She leaves her hands on my chest, the nails digging in above my kit, and I try not to think about how fucking good they feel there. I can still feel the imprint of where she dragged them down my shoulders the last time she let me between her thighs.

“Why am Iafraid?” she hisses, and her nails dig in harder, drawing a grunt from me. “How could Inotbe? This world is horrible. You’re either left alone, or you’re surrounded by people who want to hurt you. There are no rules, no safe places. It’s all a lie. There’s just awful people doing awful things, and the only way to stop them is by making yourself awful too.”

Yeah. No shit.

“The world is a fucked-up place. It always has been. People are just more honest about it now.” I study her for a minute. Her eyes are wet, and she’s breathing hard, and those nails of hers are about to leave me with a brand-new scar.

“You’re angry.” Fuck. I like angry.

“Ugh. Why does everyone keepsayingthat?”

Everyone? I frown. Who’severyone?

Before I can ask, a bloodcurdling howl rips through the night. We both freeze, listening, as it rises in pitch and volume.

“That’s Mateo.” Her face goes tight, her breaths coming even faster. “Heather’s at Alastair again. God, this isn’t right.”

I tense. The prisoners are bad news—we should have killed them on sight, like all the others. Having enemies in the camp, captive or not, makes me itchy.

“What do you care?”

She gives me that frigid pursed-lip disapproval. “She’storturingthem. They don’t have any more information. It’s just sport for her. I understand she’s angry, I do, but they are of more use to us as allies.”

Another shout shatters the night, and I glare at her. “One of them had a gun to your head in that firefight, Miss Manners. You think it was shooting daisies?”

“No, but?—”

“He was going to blow you to pieces,” I growl. “In front of me. He was dead the minute he picked up that gun.”

She shoves at me again, and I press her into the tree until her breasts are flattened against my chest and her hair rubs against the bark. It’s back in its bun, and just looking at how tight it is gives me a migraine.

Eden glares back at me over the rim of her glasses, all prim and indignant and accidentally hot as fuck. It makes me want to shock her over and over again.

I want her to try and scold me with my cock up her ass.

“You seeing yourself right now? You’re angry as shit. But if you want to pretend like you’re not choking on it, you go ahead. I’m not your daddy. But I got all the pretty red flags in my file, sugar. Iknowangry.”

Her glare drops to my lips, and she’s breathing hard against me. I feel every press of her breasts, every shift of her stomach against my dick.

“I don’twantto be angry,” she snipes.

I scoff, keeping my eyes on hers. I like how they snap at me. “Bullshit. As if that didn’t keep you alive.” I bring my face close to hers. “Not a verypolitefeeling though, is it? Does it make you uncomfortable, princess? Feeling all the messy shit?”

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