Page 53 of Don't Date Your Nemesis

But she didn’t move away or put distance between us. If anything, she leaned closer.

“Deepika.”

Deepika. Deepika. Deepika. I wanted to keep repeating her name like a mantra.

“What, Liam?”

“You can’t say something like that and expect me to forget it.”

“I was joking.”

“You weren’t.”

“I was tipsy.”

“You had one glass of champagne.”

“It was a big glass.”

I edged closer, and the delicate fragrance of her perfume reached my nose. Jasmine and vanilla, the scent that had been driving me insane since that party.

“Say it again.”

“Say what?”

“That you want my mouth on you.”

She swallowed hard. “We’re at a party.”

“We were at a party an hour ago, too. But it didn’t stop us then.”

Her breathing had quickened, and I could see her pulse jumping at her throat.

“Liam, we⁠—”

“Say it.”

“We hate each other.”

“Do we?”

The question hung between us as my eyes dropped to her plump lips.

17

RULE ONE OF KIDNAPPING

DEEPIKA

The way Liam looked at me made me want to close the distance between us.

But before I could, the balcony door opened behind us. Laughter and music spilled out, a reminder that we were surrounded by people who thought we were a happy couple instead of two people who couldn’t decide if they wanted to kill each other or fuck each other senseless.

I stepped back, creating space and breaking whatever spell had been building between us.

“We should go back inside,” I said.

“Yeah.”