Page 91 of Through the Flames
The worst part? IknewHunter didn’t see me that way. Not really.
He didn’t treat me like those assholes did. But when he shut me out like this and made me feel like just a body, like tenderness wasn’t worth the risk, it burned in the same old place.
We were so fucking different, and it was chipping away at me.
And this right here? This was Exhibit A in my courtroom of self-loathing:
Me, lying here with my chest tight and my vagina composing love sonnets, while Robot Boy sat ten feet away updating his damn software.
I knew I had no right to be upset, but tell that to the words threatening to spill out of my mouth.
The quiet of the room amplified these feelings, these restless thoughts, until I finally couldn’t hold back anymore.
The tension coiled tight in my chest like a fist, begging for release.
I wanted to push him, make him crack, make him burn for me the way I did for him. He kept saying that he owned me and calling me his. Well, he could fucking prove it to me.
“So this is it, huh? You wreck me, then retreat to your Batcave? I feelsoromanced right now.” The words had left my mouth before I could overthink them, my voice echoing too loud in the stillness, making me feel exposed.
His chair creaked softly as he swiveled to face me, one brow arched. “Should I cue the violins or the cuffs?”
I gaped at him for a moment before recovering. “You think I wouldn’t let you?”
“Don’t really have a choice, do you?”
Arrogant motherfucker.
Anger was suddenly rushing through my veins, hot and furious, scorching my insides and ripping through my chest. It wasn’t fair that I was falling apart over here, while he was his usual, unimpressed self.
“Right,” I scoffed, shaking my head at how clueless he was, at my own stupidity for hoping there could be more to this.
“I feel like I might’ve missed something.” The chair groaned under his weight again as he leaned back. “What’s going on?”
I pushed myself up, swung my legs over the edge of the bed, letting cold air kiss my bare thighs. I tilted my head, a smug grin pulling at my lips like a dare.
“Here’s a fun idea: Stop hiding behind your FBI cosplay and look at me like you did earlier.”
Hunter’s eyes flicked up slowly, sharp and flat. “If I look at you like that again, I’m not stopping where I did last time.”
I swallowed, my heart pounding like a war drum. “Big talk for somebody who acts like passion comes with a manual. What’s next? You gonna make me fill out a survey?”
He flexed his jaw, tendons taut, gripping the desk so hard his knuckles went white. His voice dropped, deadly serious. “… do people do that?”
Oh. My. Fucking. God.
“You’re unbelievable.” I scoffed.
“So … no survey.”
“No, no fucking survey!” I threw my hands in the air in frustration. “You won’t even kiss me, and I know,I knowthis is just an arrangement, trust me, but would it be sohorribleto at least—”
“You talk way too fucking much. “
Ouch.
Hunter rose, slow and deliberate, like a predator closing in. Heat radiated off him, and with one finger, he tipped my chin up.
“You want me to kiss you? Toburnfor you? Congratulations. I’ve been standing here, going up in flames, holding it all in for fuckingmonths. And you can bet your ass, now you’re finally feeling it too, I’ll make sure it won’t ever stop.”
