Page 43 of Swallow Your Sorries

Aria, of course, doesn’t question me.

“Wait,” Zedd says, lifting Stassi’s unfinished plate. “You barely ate.”

“I’m not hungry,” Stassi calls over her shoulder and Zedd frowns, gazing from the full plate to her mug of untouched coffee.

Étienne storms off somewhere while Zedd and Hale continue to bicker, flapping their arms wildly over the table like two squabbling geese.

“What’d you find?” Bae asks, unbothered by the drama as he pops a strawberry into his mouth.

“Nothing of use,” I say. “Yet.”

Bae eyes me over the rim of his coffee mug, studying me in that annoying way he always does. He’s far too attuned with shit that shouldn’t concern him.

“What?” I snap.

“I don’t get it. We both know you want to humiliate her. Punish her. Ruin her. But we both know you want to fuck her too.”

“So?”

“So how do you figure she’ll give in after the hell you’ll put her through?”

“I’mnot putting her through hell, am I?”

“Publicly pissing on her aside, you still sanctioned the secondhand bullying. She’ll still see it as you orchestrating everything. Shouldn’t you have lured her into a false sense of security, fucked her first, then tossed her aside?”

“No. When I fuck her, I want her to know exactly who I am, and how much I fucking hate her. I want her to hate herself for wanting me. For letting me in despite it all. That way she can’t pin her pathetic pinning, climaxing,beggingon not knowing. That way, she can never forgive herself. No, no pretences.”

Bae shakes his head. “You’re taking the hard road. Who’s to say she’ll give in?”

“She claimed me.”

“It was bold of her. Brazen even, but she was just trying to save face. Find some leverage.”

“She can find it on my cock. You should’ve felt the way she trembled on it.”

“You don’t even know if she’ll stay.”

“You’re forgetting that there’s something she loves more than she hates me.”

Bae arches a brow in doubt.

“Ballet. And I’ve given it to her on a silver platter, haven’t I? She’s here at the most prestigious dance academy in the country. If she leaves, what decent college program or theatre will give her a chance? No, she isn’t going anywhere. No matter what I do.”

“I’m still not seeing the connection to how you’ll convince her to let you in. Literally.”

“Who do you think will be the worst in the class?”

Bae’s forehead smooths as realisation washes over him. “I know who’s the best.”

“She’ll come crawling to me on her hands and knees with her head buried in the sand. Her ass pitched in the air. The perfect position to be thoroughly fucked.”

“So you’ll build her up. The higher they are, the harder they fall. Still… that takes time.”

“Depending on the dancer, a pointe shoe can be broken in twelve to twenty hours. On average.”

“You’d say she’s average?”

“When it comes to dance.” And only dance.

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