Page 51 of A Labor of Hate
I met his eyes, contemplating whether to knee him in the groin or punch him in the solar plexus.
“I don’t.”I looked pointedly at his arm.“Now, I suggest you move, Liam.”
“Or what?”
I narrowed my eyes, the similarities from a few weeks ago playing in my mind.Standing behind a stubborn man blocking my way, arguing with him to move.Both men, now and three weeks ago in front of that stupid coffee maker, were devilishly handsome.Both men towered over me.Both men challenged me.But the similarities ended there.I’d never felt threatened or unsafe with Colt, not like I currently did with Liam.Colt blocked my way just to push my buttons.Liam blocked my way to get what he wanted—even if by force.Colt would move if I’d made any indication that I was uncomfortable.Liam pressed his advantage knowing I was.
For all my talk of despising Colt, I never truly hated him.Not like I hated Liam right now, the wolf in sheep’s clothing exposed.And, as my luck would have it, the only man genuinely interested in me in ages.A predator.
I squared my shoulders, letting my crushed heart bleed into anger.“Simple.Move or I’ll move you.”
His eyes flicked down my body, the hungry glint in them making my skin crawl.“I’d like to see you try.”
I shrugged.“Just remember, you asked for it.”
Holding his eyes, I jammed my knee into his groin.The jerk never even saw it coming.
He curled in on himself, almost dropping to the floor.I deftly stepped around him, managing to avoid bumping his head with my belly.Not that he wouldn’t have deserved it, but the further I could get from him, the better.
I didn’t stop to grab my shoes or the empty cupcake platter, and I didn’t spare the few remaining daffodils outside a second glance like I usually did, either.Instead, I high-tailed it back to our house in my socks and locked the door.Colt could find me whenever he was done.I wasn’t going to stick around a moment longer.I couldn’t.
My eyes stung.My hands trembled from the residual adrenaline.The walls closed in around me, tighter and tighter as the hallway seemed to stretch further and further.Just a few more steps, and I’d make it.Why was it still so far?
Finally, I reached the door to the one place I knew could offer any real privacy—Colt’s room—and shut myself inside.I leaned against the wall and sank to the floor.The lid I’d been forcibly keeping on my feelings slipped.
And I let the tears fall.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
I CRIEDAS if I hadn’t allowed myself to in months—because I hadn’t, even on the anniversary of Dominick’s death.Everything about my situation compounded.The fake relationship, lying to Vivienne, the constant fear of inadvertently revealing our true identities.The constant ticking down of the clock before Gauthier’s latest drug hit the streets.All the lost progress in the truce with Colt.And then tonight, the real kicker.
My confrontation with Liam left an empty cavern where my heart should be, eating through my bones like acid.I easily could’ve incapacitated him, so the danger wasn’t very high.And yet, I’d felt it: the fear too many women have experienced throughout their lives.And many of them don’t get the luxury of the outcome I did.
Is this all I was going to get?Didn’t I deserve better?Someone who would respect me, at the very least.Someone who would complement me, make me a better person.I may not deserve a real Prince Charming, but I sure as heck deserved better than a man who tried to get lucky with a married woman—while her husband was in the same house, no less.If the experience hadn’t taken all the wind out of my sails, I’d debate whether to be more impressed by Liam’s guts or his stupidity.
It could’ve been ten minutes or two hours I sat against the wall, purging myself of all the emotions I’d bottled up before Colt came home.
The front door shut.He called my name, spurring me on to wipe desperately at my teary, snotty face as his soft footsteps padded down the hall.There was a short pause before he knocked on the door, as if debating what to do about the fact that his wife had left the neighbor’s house without her shoes, locked the door behind her, and was now sequestered in his room.Considering the sorry state of our non-existent truce, I was impressed he didn’t barge in to stop whatever chaos I’d been wreaking for the past twenty-four hours.
“Go away,” I called, though all the fight had left me with the knee I’d planted in Liam’s crotch.
Colt must have sensed the same thing, since he slowly opened the door.“What are you doing in?—”
He stopped short the second he saw me.His dark eyes widened in shock, and the color drained from his face.For a split second, it was the first and only time I’d seen this particular emotion on Colt Dixon’s face.
Fear.
In an instant, what I thought I saw was gone, replaced by concern.He took two hurried steps toward me, but stopped short again, as if remembering the nature of our relationship.Either that, or my disheveled state had blinded him.
My mascara was probably flaked or smeared all over my face.My eyes were likely red and puffy, my nose pink, and my hair a frizzy mane.Stupid humidity.
“What happened?Are you… okay?”His hand flexed into a fist at his side, but he didn’t come any closer.
I leaned my head against the wall, staring at the ceiling.My voice croaked worse than a chain-smoking bullfrog.“Just peachy.You?”
He sighed, finally closing the distance and folding his lengthy frame onto the floor next to me.“Obviously you’re using sarcasm to deflect again.What’s really going on?”
I inhaled a shuddering breath and willed my voice not to squeak with tears.“Let’s just say that while you were working your organization magic, Liam thought that was the perfect opening to proposition me.”
