Page 28 of Corrupt Me

You’re doing a good job on your own. I don’t say that. Instead, I rip myself from her warmth and magnetic pull. When she passes me, I dip my head into the fridge to cool down.

“Wouldn’t have thought you’d be a coward.”

“Stop playing games. You’re bound to lose—and badly. I am not the one for you, and I never will be,” I say through gritted teeth, slamming the door to the fridge shut.

“You’ve made that clear.”

“Yet, you keep pushing.”

“Be honest, Hunter. What are we really doing here? I dare you to tell me the truth. But you won’t. I wouldn’t believe you anyway because you—”

“We said we’d never talk about that.”

“Right, my bad.”

Everything changed after that almost-kiss—it opened the floodgates, leaving me fantasizing about what it would be like to really kiss her. My first kiss. We were bickering, as always, when I backed her against the wall in the hallway, wanting to silence her… until the front door opened, pulling me out of my momentary insanity.

I wanted so badly to believe that if I kept telling myself she annoys me and I don’t like her, at some point, I would believe it. It never worked and never will.

I move toward the island, chop some bell peppers, and whisk some eggs to make an omelet. She sets the table, neatly arranging it as if we were expecting distinguished guests. Even the napkins are folded into fan shapes.

We move in silence while the things we don’t say stretch heavily between us. I inhale deeply a few times, trying to fill my lungs, because her presence alone seems to steal the air—along with pieces of my soul. I thought I’d be the one to corrupt her, but it’s starting to feel like the other way around. “We still have training after breakfast. And tomorrow, we’ll have a practice at the training complex.”

“Of course, Sir. Yes, Sir.”

She even gives a salute and, in true Bailey fashion, strikes a perfect pose.

“Keep provoking me. You’re the one who will have to go on a date sore as fuck.”

Her eyes widen, and I groan low in my throat.Fuck you, Freudian slip.

Thankfully, the others trickle in one after the other, and Bailey and I return to pretending we’re cool when the temperature around us turns scorching hot faster than a rocket taking off.

“Anything new?” Kaden asks Bailey.

She dabs at the corners of her mouth with the napkin. “I’m going out with Eric tonight.”

“Don’t take unnecessary risks,” he tells her.

“There haven’t been any more phone calls.”

“Then I don’t see why you have to do this,” Blake says, being the voice of reason—something I’d never thought to associate with him.

“It’s our only lead.”

“I don’t like Eric. At all,” Abi says.

I’d raise a toast to Barbie if I had one.

“If he goes too far, I’m going to kill him,” Celine says.

“I can take care of myself.”

I let out a disgruntled sound, and Bailey glares at me. We stare at each other until Mia asks, “Are you slacking off with training? If she’s not ready, it’s on you.”

My lovely sister. I would wring her neck if she wasn’t my twin, my other half. She has that challenging tilt, wanting to coax me from behind my walls. She’s hurt that I don’t confide in her, but knowing her, she would blame herself, and it was no one’s fault but mine.

“I want to go shopping,” Abi says, quickly changing the subject.

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