Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
“…You don’t have to pay me to fuck you.”
She whimpered—a soft, pathetic, needy sound that tore from her throat without her permission—and her knees buckled. Her hands went up, fisting the fabric of his shirt to maintain her balance and his breath caught when she inadvertently brushed against one hard, male nipple.
He nuzzled her temple and she could feel the fleeting brush of his lips on her skin, followed by the soft sting of his stubble. They remained like that for a while, pressed together, her nose millimeters away from his chest. She could smell the wonderful fresh scent of his cologne, combined with the warm muskiness of his clean skin. She swayed closer, knowing that this was folly, knowing that she should tell him to step back.
“I hurt you,” he muttered into her hair and she blinked. That was not what she’d been expecting to hear from him.
“Uh, wuh…what?”
“The thing I did earlier. It upset you, didn’t it? It hurt you.”
His words immediately put her on the defensive. Of their friends, only Cat knew about her stutter. The thought of Gideon—of all people—having that information about her made her feel vulnerable and exposed.
Her hands came up to his chest and pushed. He resisted for a millisecond before stepping back, giving her room to breathe, even while she lamented the loss of his heat and proximity.
“Don’t let it bother you, Gideon. After all, hurting me is what you do best, right? It’s part of our game.”
He stumbled back even further, looking like a man who had just been slapped.
“Th-that’s not what we do.” Beth relished the surge of snide satisfaction at hearing Gideon stumble over his words for a change.
“How would you describe it then?”
“Not like that. We don’t hurt. We tease, torment a little. A thousand papercuts remember? Not deep, slashing wounds.”
She made a scoffing sound and his eyes flashed.
“Come on, Lizzy. When have I ever hurt you?” he asked indignantly.
They had retreated to opposite sides of the small kitchen now, like boxers between rounds. Sizing each other up warily for weaknesses, while careful not to expose any of their own.
“You’re seriously asking me this question? Seriously?” Beth asked. Her snort of laughter was laced with disbelief.
“Yes. I’m seriously asking you this question. Because it’s fucking bullshit.”
“Last year, at the New Year’s Eve party, when you said the massive stick up my arse was probably the reason I couldn’t dance for shit.”
“You mean after you accused me of being a show-off when I tried to teach Zane a pop and lock move?”
Okay, so maybe she’d kind of forgotten the comment that had led up to his insult, but that was just one small sample of his shitty and cruel behavior toward her over the last couple of years.
“What about Easter? You told everyone to be sure they had a couple of shots of espresso because they’d need it to stay awake once I started…how did you put it? Banging on about irrelevant Easter trivia that was bound to bore everyone to tears within seconds?”
“You mean after I made a dumb, facetious comment about Easter eggs being a thing because Jesus ate eggs for breakfast the morning of the crucifixion? When you told me that I was an ignorant idiot who should stop talking about stuff I know nothing about?”
She chewed on the inside of her cheek. She vaguely recalled being irrationally annoyed by how everybody had laughed at his dumb joke and sniping at him about it.
“At Cat and Cam’s engagement party…” she said, digging deep into her bag of infuriating Gideon memories to the most hurtful of them all.
A sharp and bitter lowlight in their acquaintanceship. Known simply to Beth as, The Insult.
That was all that needed saying really. He had no comeback for that one. His eyes slid to the side and his shoulders slumped.
Perhaps this was a feud after all, because before that moment, Beth had disliked him but she hadn’t actively loathed him. Afterwards…well, their history spoke for itself.
Chapter Eight
Beth recalled the humiliating incident vividly.
Remembered Gideon leaning toward one of Cam’s colleagues and yelling over the pounding music: “I honestly have no clue why someone as sweet and vibrant and interesting as Cat would ever be friends with that Elizabeth woman. She’s excruciatingly dull, painfully obnoxious, and just plain unlikable. She doesn’t seem like the type to have many—or any—friends, maybe that’s why she latched onto Cat. And Cat being too kind for her own good felt sorry for her.” He’d laughed then, before shaking his head and announcing. “She’s literally just someone the Cat dragged in.”
And that was when he’d caught sight of her standing just behind his tall companion. She’d been to the kitchen for a glass of water and stood in the doorway, her hand shaking enough to send water sloshing over the sides of the tall glass. She’d felt both incredibly small and much too visible at the same time. All she had wanted was for the earth to open up and swallow her whole.