Page 16 of Bittersweet Revenge

She removed her golden napkin from her lap and threw it on the table. “If your dinner request was just an optic to bully me, I think I’ll pass. You do that enough in every unfortunate encounter. Now if you’ll excuse me,” she added, standing up and turning around to leave the room.

I should have let her leave. I’d thrown a few good punches. I had made her try only to be pushed away. I just needed to take the car keys and go to Aleksandra, and yet I found myself standing up.

“They’re back in two weeks, on Tuesday to be exact.”

She turned around, remaining by the door, her face full of suspicion and foreboding.

“I’ve got a present for you,” I blurted out.What the actual f–I thought as I looked down at my glass. Was the water drugged? It really seemed like it when she was in the room. When her eyes were on me, I had minimal control of my thoughts.

“With the way you’ve been acting, I'm not sure I want it,” she replied suspiciously.

I chuckled at that. I really enjoyed the spunk. I couldn't deny it. She was one of the first people I’d met who didn’t tiptoe around me, who wasn’t scared. The issue I had was with her ability to lie so well.

I gestured to Benjamin to clear the table. “It’s a good one. I promise. Come, I’ll show you.”

“Uh-huh,” she said noncommittally as she followed me back to the multi-car garage we had.

I pointed to the red and black Bugatti Chiron. “I bought you this.”

“You bought me…a car?” She turned to me, confusion written all over her face.

I couldn’t blame her after the way I’d treated her since I'd retrieved her from California, but truth be told I’d bought her this car before she'd escaped. I had ordered it after our day together… That fake day she used to cheat me,I thought as the bile of deception rose in my throat. I took a deep breath, forcing the anger down. It was not the time, at least not yet.

I’d bought it for her because I'd started to care a bit too much, because I hadn't liked the idea of her depending on anyone else for rides, because I'd known about the trick Archibald had pulled on her the day of her introduction party. He had laughed about it, but I hadn’t really approved, knowing their father. I hadn't even known at the time about his tendency to hit his own daughter. If I had known at the time...

If you HAD known, then what?A part of my brain taunted.You like the power too much, you never would have said anything to get on the bad side of William Forbes.

There was no point dwelling on it now. It was clear that even then Archibald was playing me. He had probably planned this with his sister – hoping that I or Antoine would rescue her and gain some leverage.

“Caleb, you bought me a car?” She asked again, bringing me back to the here and now.

I nodded, entering the code of the key safe and getting the keys of the Bugatti out, extending them to her.

“Yes, I did,” I replied as she took the key tentatively. The only thing that I had added this week was a tracker under the car, which I could use to disable the car at distance and one that would automatically disable should she try to exit Stonewood.“It even has custom plates.” Again, something I did when I’d mistakenly cared for who I thought she was.

She circled the car and her face softened as she took in the plates. It was so stupid. In retrospect I now wished I’d changed that before giving it to her. My state of mind was different now. The feelings were gone.

Are they?The taunting voice was back.Fuck you!“I’ve got a lot of obligations and I won't be able to take you to and from school every day and I'd rather you didn't spend too much time plotting.”

She ignored my last comment as she was frozen to the spot looking at the license plate – ‘ANG3L5’ surrounded by wings. I’d done that as a gesture before she'd betrayed me.

She looked up at me, her hand on her mouth, her eyes expressing a tenderness I hated, hated because I didn't know if it was fake or not and also because it still managed to get through to me in seconds when I thought I’d repaired my impenetrable emotional armor. She looked at me like that and those feelings slipped through again, like a sword through a gap in chainmail.

“You remembered…” she whispered as if it meant something.

She took a couple of steps toward me and took me by surprise when she kissed my cheek and hugged me.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

No, it wouldn't work I couldn’t cope with her attention. I hated how my heart reacted to her despite everything. I needed her to stay away. I needed her to want to stay away. I needed her to hate me too and if she cared even a little, I needed her to keep it to herself.I was not strong enough to resist. I needed her to do it for me.

“You like it enough to give me a blowjob?”

She jerked back, looking at me with uncertainty. “What?” Her voice trembled.

I jerked my head toward the car. “I took care of your need; you should take care of mine,” I added with a smirk, resting my hand on her shoulder and pressing down, not hard enough to make her bend, but enough to show her I meant business.

I tried to keep my poker face at the surprise I felt seeing her sink to her knees in front of me on the hard concrete floor.

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