Chapter 22
Emerson~
O h, no, this motherfucker didn’t.
Where did he get off?
You couldn’t just go around telling people that hated you that you loved them. There were rules to fighting with the enemy, and love was so not in the rule book.
“Pardon?”
Yeah. Pardon.
I’d gone with ‘pardon’ because I had nothing else. I could feel the asshole chuckling behind me, and I wanted to elbow him right in the mouth. I wanted for him to take the words back.
“I said that I love you,” he repeated, his voice firm and confident.
Now, I could do one of three things right now; I could roll over and tell him I loved him, too. I could bash him in the head with my nightstand lamp, then kick him the hell out of my house. Or I could get up, go take a shower, and buy myself some time to figure out how his words were making me feel.
Well, I for sure wasn’t going to roll over and profess my love. I had morning breath, so that just wasn’t going to happen. Then I glanced at my lamp and realized that the little guy was quite innocent in all this and didn’t deserve to be a casualty of war. So, it looked like the winner was the shower and some time.
“What are you doing?” he asked as I threw the covers back, then fought to get out of his hold.
I didn’t think that he’d let me go take a shower, so I went with a guarantee. “I need to go pee…uh, unless you’re into that kind of thing,” I answered sarcastically, hoping to mask my nervousness.
“I am not,” he confirmed as he removed his arm from around my waist.
I didn’t waste any time after that. I jumped out of bed, then practically ran to the en suite. I didn’t have time to be embarrassed that I was only in a tank-top and panties, either. Besides, he’d seen a lot more on Thursday after that bullshit with Jamie Turner.
I brushed my teeth, removed my clothes, and then stepped into the shower. I turned the water on as hot as I could stand it because I needed the heat to ease the tension in my muscles. Ramsey had me wound tighter than a top.
I guess what I needed to do was take the emotion out of it and look at him logically.
He was a dick.
He was abusive.
He was arrogant.
He was stubborn.
He was a bully.
He was rich-and, yes, that was a negative when you used your wealth for evil.
He’d done his best to embarrass and humiliate me.
He’d been cruel and manipulative.
Ramsey Reed was an asshole.
An. Absolute. Asshole.
The answer was easy.
Run.
Run and don’t look back.
Then I closed my eyes under the scalding hot water, and my chest felt like it was caving in at the thought of never being near Ramsey again. He was just the kind of bad idea that my twisted mind and neglected body craved. Plus, he’d just told me that he loved me.
I spewed out a bitter laugh.
The fact that I would even be needy enough to believe him was reason enough to lock me up in a crazy house. I knew- I knew -that he was just playing with me by telling me that. It was another one of his games. Still, Jesus Christ, if he didn’t make my body sing and all common sense flee.
It didn’t matter how long I hid myself in this shower; I wasn’t going to unravel everything complicated about my association with Ramsey in a short fifteen-minute shower. So, instead of dwelling on it, I washed my hair, then conducted an actual shower.
When I finished, I shut off the water, wrapped my hair in a towel turban-style, grabbed the robe hanging on the back of the door, then stepped out to face the music.
Ramsey was lying on the bed with his muscular, defined, corded arms crossed over behind his head. He looked relaxed and as if he belonged there, and evil people really shouldn’t be so beautiful.
He cocked his head, then smirked at me. “Have a nice shower?”
I stopped walking until I was at the edge of the bed, looking down at him. “How can you say that?”
His right brow arched. “Ask if you had a nice shower?”
This motherfucker.
“I swear to God, Ramsey, I have no qualms about bashing your head in,” I bit out, frustrated. “You know damn well what I’m talking about.”
Ramsey’s face transformed from mocking to tender, and it made me want to bash his head in even more. It was in these moments when he wasn’t being a total prick that I wanted to fall into him.
He sat up, then flung his legs over the edge of the bed. I was suddenly standing in between his opened legs, and his hands were on my hips as if it were the most natural thing in the world for him. I had to swallow as I looked down at his near nakedness.
Ramsey Reed was built like a fucking god.
I’d known from the very first night that I’d met him that he was all hard planes and definition, but the tattoo blending over his right shoulder, bicep, and pec made him that much hotter in my opinion. Even though Ramsey was sitting down, he was so much taller than me that his face reached my neck, and he was looking up at me with eyes so full of warmth that I could feel myself falling. Plus, that scar across his eye… Jesus.
“I can say it because it’s true, Emerson,” he said seriously.
I shook my head at him. “How can you be in love with me, Ramsey? You’ve spent the entire handful of days that you’ve known me hating me and treating me like shit,” I pointed out.
Ramsey didn’t get cocky or arrogant. His expression remained earnest as he said, “I never hated you, Emerson. I hated how out of control you made- make me feel.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Now that I know what this is, I can control how I proceed.”
“It’s that simple for you?” I asked because I had to know. This thing with Ramsey felt anything but simple.
“Yes, it is.” His hands tightened on my hips. “Nothing like what happened Thursday will ever happen to you again, Emerson.”
My fists clenched at my sides. “So, what? Are you trying to absolve your guilt?” I was so pissed that I had fallen for his sweet words. I stepped out of his hold, then turned my back on him, ready to show him the door. “You’re such a fucking dick.”
He had his hand on my arm, and my body turned towards him before I could make it to the door. “Goddamn it, that’s not what this is about, Emerson.”
I glared up at him. “Then what is this?” I snapped. “What the fuck are you doing, Ramsey? What do you want from me?” I felt like he was driving me crazy with his shit. “What in the hell is this?”
He answered not one question. Instead, he slammed his lips down on mine in a kiss that I felt all the way down to my toes. His hands wove their way up my face, then into my hair until my towel toppled off my head, then onto the floor. My hair was damp, but Ramsey didn’t seem to mind. His hold tightened as he deepened the kiss.
What did I do?
I opened up for him.
My lips parted on a surprised gasp, but I didn’t shut them. No. My hands climbed up his chest, then circled around his neck as I sank into his kiss. Ramsey tasted like mint and future regret. Still, I didn’t care. I was tired of fighting him, and I was tired of denying what he made me feel.
I. Was. Just. Tired.
A low, rough growl emitted from his throat, and I could feel the vibrations from it on my tongue. Ramsey’s hands untangled themselves from my hair, then worked their way down my body to untie my robe. I was naked underneath, but I didn’t give it much thought. I was too caught up in his kiss to care. Besides, I knew where this was going, and I was okay with my decision.
Suddenly, Ramsey pulled back. His hands were still on the sash of the robe, but he hadn’t tried to untie it yet. He was looking down at me, and I could only describe his expression as desperate, which felt insane since this was Ramsey Reed that we were talking about. The boy had the world at his feet, so what did he have to feel desperate over?
“Do you love me?” he asked, shocking the holy fuck out of me.
I blinked up at him, and I wasn’t sure what to say.
Did I love him? I didn’t know.
His chest was heaving, and he looked at his wit’s end. “How would you feel if you never saw me again?”
The thought of never seeing Ramsey again was crippling. For whatever reason, for whatever plan that was set for my life, I saw Ramsey as a part of it. Did I love him? Maybe I did. Maybe that’s what this crazy pull was. It could only be love, right? Or insanity, which I wasn’t ruling out completely.
However, one thing was glaringly clear to me, and the hollowness that consumed me at the thought of never seeing Ramsey again answered for me. “Yes. I love you.”