Page 17 of Hurt Me Not
Except she didn’t. She merely shrugged before replying, “I came to give you your reward like I promised. But even if I had come to insult you or was stalking you, I have the feeling you would like that.”
I instantly blushed, and she started laughing. An unrestrained laugh that had my insides turning.
I had never seen her this free. It did things to me that I didn't want to admit.
I also didn’t want to agree with her statement.
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
“I’m not. You flattered me enough last night when you were begging for my?—”
I grabbed her thigh to stop her.
“You know, we need to have some rules about this. Like, not in public.”
She raised a brow at me, her smirk in full force.
“Only in private, then? Like over the phone? Or can we move on to a more face-to-face experience?”
I could feel the heat shooting up my neck and face.
“It’d be embarrassing if anyone overheard you.”
The smirk was gone, her face went dark, and she lowered her voice to a whisper.
“You know what, Meadows? I don’t think you’re embarrassed at all. I think youlikeit. You liked the way I talked to you atthe restaurant. You could have hung up when I called you last night, but you didn’t. You like to be told what to do. Humiliated. Degraded. You like being my slut. You’re still trying to convince yourself that it's wrong and dirty, but I see you, Pearl. I havealwaysseen you.”
Suddenly, I was looking at Emerson in a new light. Not the school bully who used to prowl the halls looking for me, but someone entirely different. She had grown in the years we’d been apart. She was confident, and she had good reason to be.
Images of her blood-covered face, pain twisting her expression, hit me hard. She was a far cry from that too.Those painful memories were in the past, and part of me was glad to see she hadn’t been consumed by them.
“What if I had hung up on you? Or told you I did have a guest?”
I had no idea where that had come from. All I knew was that I couldn’t let her have the last word. Because she was right.
“I would have driven to your house, probably in a lot less than ten minutes, and broken down the fucking door so I could punish you for either of those things. And you would have liked it.”
Damn. There go my panties.
“You say you see me, but somehow I'm starting to realize I may not know a single thing about you.”
Her eyes widened and she leaned back. For the first time since I'd known Emerson, I seemed to have rendered her speechless.
It gave me a burst of confidence—the same confidence that had kept me talking to her on the phone.
I leaned forward.
“So what about that reward? Another kiss?”
“Is that what you want?” she hissed.
I raised my brow at her and tilted my head to the side.
“Is there something else on the table?”
Anger crossed her face. I knew it was anger this time, as I’d seen it on her face plenty of times. Suddenly, she pushed her chair back so hard it squeaked against the flooring, and half a second later, she was on me.
Her hand fisted my hair as her lips took mine. I had to hold onto my coffee so I wouldn’t drop it. She kissed me like she did that night in the club. Possessive. Like an animal.
