Page 17 of Defying Ella
“Let’s just get some things straight, shall we?” I put the cake down on the coffee table and stood slowly. With barely any room between the sofa and the coffee table, he had to back up or risk brushing against me again.
“You’re never going to touch me? What the hell was the hair smoothing shit then? Keep your hands offme.I don’t like you. I haven’t since you showed me your true colours. You can keep being a manwhore for all I care. I just don’t want to be around you.” My hands landed on my hips as my voice rose. “Newsflash asshole, I’d love to never see you again, but unfortunately, the options are you quitting the band or me disowning my sister, which is never going to happen.”
“I’m not quitting.”
I crossed my arms. “Then we’re stuck with each other.” I let my gaze rake over his body just like he’d done to me, only faux disgust scrunched up my face. “Stay out of my way and I’ll stay out of yours. If you want to get out of here alive, maybe don’t touch me when I’m sleeping. Next time I might bite your hand off, and then where will your precious musiccareer be?” I sneered at him, then picked up the plate. “Thanks for the cake, Julia Child. I’ll eat this alone and consider keeping your little secret to myself.”
“Don’t you dare tell anyone, Ella.”
I brushed past him, smiling like he didn’t affect me. “Don’t worry. I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt your bad-boy reputation.”Much.
“You wouldn’t,” he muttered, prowling after me.
“Why wouldn’t I? It’s not like it hurts me.” I shrugged.
“Ella,” he growled.
The sound skittered down my spine. I kept walking, didn’t even glance at him. I had cake, books and a room with a lock. I wouldn’t let him flatten me like he wanted.
Why did he want that?
CHAPTER FIVE
Tap. Tap. Tap.
I jolted, dropped the phone and bit my tongue on a yelp of surprise. My chest hurt with the impact of the device, promising me an unsightly bruise. Fun.
“Ella?” Jared called tentatively.
Words caught in my throat, entangled in a web of disbelief and outrage. He could never know he’d scared me. The man would make my life a living hell while he tried for repeat after repeat.
“What do you want?” I shouted back, refusing to move from my sprawled-out position on my bed.
“Can you open the door?”
I glared at the door. He invited himself on my holiday fromhimand now thought he had a right to make demands on my time? Throwing him over the deck railing looked better and better every time he opened his mouth.
“Please?” he asked, his voice more subdued.
I pursed my lips, stupidly torn. At least he’d asked nicely. If I’d believed the front he presented to the world around him, I would have been convinced he didn’t know the meaning ofthe word. He’d said thank you to his drum tech a grand total of five times in a month.
Yet, here he was, dishing it out for me, the supposed bane of his existence.
Aren’t you lucky?
“We need to talk.”
I scrambled off the bed and tiptoed towards the oak door. I didn’t unlatch the lock. Not yet.
“We really don’t. You made your position pretty clear upstairs.”
He sighed and the wood groaned quietly. The man was a next-level headfuck. My head hurt just trying to anticipate his next move or his ulterior motive.
No wonder Alys’s best friend had taken off to travel the world. Hell, I might follow her when I got free of the cabin.
“Then talk.”
“El, c’mon. I’m not having a conversation through a door.” When I didn’t move to let him in, he growled before a bang ricocheted through the door.
