Page 67 of Hypnotized By Love

That’s not fair,an inner voice said.You were drunk, and he told you he didn’t want to take advantage of that.But I was in no mood for logic.

I rushed out of the dining room and for a moment wasn’t sure where to go. It just had to be away from everyone else. I headed into my dad’s office. It was at the back of the house. When he got overwhelmed by living with three women, this was where he went to escape. I closed the door behind me, leaning against it for a moment, and let out a deep sigh.

My father loved all types of books and had a pretty extensive library. Some of my best memories were of sitting in this room with him on rainy days while we both read quietly from our respective books.

Something Mason and I had also done together.

Walking over to the shelves, I let my fingers drift along the spines until I came across one of my childhood favorites,Ballet Shoes.

I took it off the shelf and went over to the couch, settling in and tucking my legs underneath me. I smiled as I remembered how this book had made me briefly consider becoming an archaeologist, and how I wanted a name that started withP.

Then I got a mental image of how Mason had indulged my whims and gone out to the backyard with me to dig up dinosaur bones. My parents yelled for a long time after they saw the holes we’d made.

No. I wasn’t going to think about that. I was going to focus on my book, on calming down and not letting Mason Beckett steal my peace.

I had just finished the first chapter when I heard the door to the study open. My mom had come to scold me.

“I did what you asked,” I said without looking up from my book. I had been polite and hadn’t made a scene and hadn’t escaped to my room. “I’m not in my bedroom.”

“I can see that.”

Mason. My eyes flew up to lock gazes with him. Him being here in this safe haven, when I was having so many conflicting feelings about him, just infuriated me. I knew I was being irrational but couldn’t help myself.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m reading.”

“What are you reading?”

“These newfangled inventions called books. It’s where curves and lines are connected into something we call words, and those turn into sentences, and you read them quietly to yourself. So shh.”

“I meant, what’s it called?”

“It’s called go somewhere else and let me read my book in peace because I don’t like it when people infringe on my reading time.”

“I remember.” There was so much unspoken in that two-word sentence, so much subtext and nostalgia and reminding of my unrequited crush that it hurt to think about it.

“You can leave,” I said, trying to turn my attention back to my book, but the words were swimming on the page.

He did the opposite of what I’d said and closed the door, coming into the room until he stood close to me.

“Back to being angry with me again,” he said, and it made my blood turn carbonated, rage fizzing around inside me. “I thought we were making progress.”

I glared at him. “What would make you think that?”

“I don’t know. Probably you trying to kiss me. Is that why you’re mad?”

Because I was embarrassed? Right now that was probably a big part of it, but there was no way I was going to admit that to him. “No!”

There was no way to miss the moment when his eyes darkened and he got that hungry look of his that turned my insides to liquid and made my breath hitch. “Is it because you’ve been waiting for me to kiss you and you’re angry that I haven’t?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

For a moment I was so struck that I couldn’t speak. “That’s not ... I don’t ... You are so ... I can’t ...”

Now he hovered over me, forcing me to crane my neck to look up at him. “Have you ever noticed how you can’t finish a sentence when you’re lying? Is that just with me or with everyone? Do you do that in your own mind when you lie to yourself?”

Who was he to tell me anything about myself? To make those kinds of assumptions? Incandescent with rage, I slammed my book shut and threw it on the couch. I stood up so quickly that it surprised him, and he should have taken a step back to give me space, but he didn’t.

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