Page 70 of The Forsaken
Hysteria bubbled in her throat.
His eyebrows dipped. “Do you find this funny?”
Tragic—Andromena found it tragic. When he first joined the McQuoid-Smith family Christmas and whispered that one kind promise, she had fallen. She could only have dreamed he’d feel this level of passion for her.
“Look at me, Andromena.”
His graveled command startled another breath from her.
“I need answers.”
Her heart stumbled. She’d never faced him like this.
Andromena pressed her palms hard against the rough rock and shells behind her, sharp edges biting into her flesh.
He knows.
She looked left, then right. No way out.
“A-Answers?”
What made you think Edgar wouldn’t find out that you’re stealing from the earl?
“Answers,” he hissed. “As in a reply, response to a question.”
“A demand is a forceful order that expects obedience; a question seeks an answer. You didn’t ask one. Ask nicely, and I might consider it.” She tipped her chin up. “If you say please…”
“The hell I will.”
Her pulse beat a frantic, jagged rhythm against her skin.
Why would he not relent? What must she do to get him to stay away?
Pride. All men had it. She used that weakness to her advantage.
Andromena favored him with a patronizing smile. “You are making a pest of yourself, Edgar.”
“A pest,” he purred.
With him, and only with him, could she hold an illusion of power. Maybe that’s why reckless, starving desperation clawed at her chest, whispering to push further, to test the absolute limit of his patience.
“Another word you’re unfamiliar with, my lord? It means plague, pestilence, a curse, the bane of my blasted existence.”
A metallic glint lit his eyes. “You are the first and only woman to not beg for me,” he sounded bemused, curious. A man who sought to crack the puzzle of the Pyramids.
She swallowed hard, the lump in her throat went down like glass.
All night, she’d been forced to watch women fighting for him.
She ground her teeth. “Maybe that is why you can’t stop chasing me.”
His shrug was noncommittal.
“You swell-head,” she snapped. “Since you have legions of admirers, why don’t you go find them?”
“Is that what you want me to do, darling?” he jeered. “Go find a buxom beauty worthy of my attention? There are dozens. More.”
She wanted to claw all their eyes out. She wanted to claw his out for even thinking about returning and choosing a woman he not only didn’t hate, but desired.
