Page 43 of Wicked Surrender

I was getting warmer, but not there yet. “How pathetic can you be?” I taunted, getting in her face. “You’re admitting?—”

She shoved me back and slid the paper back toward us. “I’m admitting thatthisis pathetic.”

Now, she snapped. Not like a bitch or a brat. She took out a red pen with an intention to slay me. But she didn’t face me, just the paper.

“It’s pathetic that you can forget the point you made in the introduction to be able to paraphrase it here. And this?” She shook her head as she scribbled on the paper she’d printed out. “You know what this theorem is. You’re not a freshman and your grades show that you aced the course that introduced this. You contradict yourself here and here. Then this, where you lose the whole punch of the point you’re trying to make, which is hinted here, you turn this draft from an attempt at completing an assignment to a mockery of words thrown together by a student who damn well knows better.”

Finished with marking up the paper with so much red it seemed to bleed, she capped the pen with angry precision and smacked it on top of the paper.

“That’spathetic,” she repeated, pivoting to face me with a flinty glare. “Making juvenile grammar errors and misspelling things just for the sake of hitting the word count. That’s pathetic, Jason. If you want my opinion, that’s it.You’reboring me with how pathetic this is when it’s obvious you are actually a lot smarter and more capable than you want anyone to believe.” She arched one brow at me, as if daring me to reply and argue.

“What…” I furrowed my brow again, honestly taken aback and stunned stupid. I hadn’t thought she’d ever eviscerate me like this. I was starting to doubt that she had it in her.

Every time I had to face her and notice more and more details that could make her alluring and tempting, I figured this was it. That she really was this much of a quiet-mannered pushover who had no clue how hot she was, how timidly gorgeous she could be.

“What the hell?” I whispered as I lowered my gaze to the paper.

After that outburst, I couldn’t tell if I wanted to argue and fight or shove her onto the table and fuck her until she screamed.

Or both.

She was goddamn radiant, on fire and spunky and so full of energy and life—evenmeanto give it to me like that.

How long had she been holding all of that in?

I narrowed my eyes at her, trying to reconcile this feisty, tell-it-like-it-is, critical version of her with the complacent and scared prey she usually was.

I had no clue how to even look at her now.

“What’s pathetic is that you try to goad me aboutmylife. What’s pathetic is your trying to subject me to some sadistic, fucked-up mind game of wanting to make me cry. It’s pathetic of you to wastemytime. And yours. Just think, Jason, you could’ve quit this weeks ago to spare us both the time we’ve been wasting. Because it’s more pathetic of you to come here and do absolutely nothing.”

I rubbed my chin, trying to keep up with all she spewed.

So hot and fed up.

Just like I wanted. I had been impatient for a reaction from her, and I finally got one.

But I hadn’t hurt her. It almost seemed like she felt triumphant, breathing hard after lashing out hotly like that.

She hadn’t even raised her voice, really, just upped the bite in her words.

“And what am I keeping you back from, huh?” I asked.

She licked her lower lip before clamping both shut tight.

“What big, exciting things am I holding you back from two nights a week?”

She glanced aside but bravely made eye contact again. I was getting to her now.

“You’ve got no fucking life, Second-Best.”

She didn’t react to the nickname that suddenly seemed dumb.

“No one is missing you at parties. No dates are waiting for you to be available.”

Nothing. I had to give her a little credit. She could be tough when she wanted.

“Not even your boring-as-fuck boyfriend with his little dick. He’s not waiting for you to rock his world. Because youaresecond-best, Laura, never good enough for anything more than being a quiet nerd.” I leaned in to snarl at her, waiting and wishing that she’d cave and give me what I wanted.

---