Page 214 of Once Upon a Fable

Fuck, whowasthis girl?

“A man like me?” I barked, already panting like a love-sick fool as she crossed the threshold.

She turned her back on me. “A man who’s desperate for someone to call his own.”

She left.

“Fuck!”

I shouted at no one. Just an empty glasshouse, my ears ringing as my voice boomeranged back. My hands fisted to punch something.

How?

How did she read meso goddamn well?

And what exactly could I do to stop her curse from coming true?

Because I would take her.

I would fuck her.

Hundreds, no, thousands of times.

I couldn’t live with her and not be inside her.

Welcomed or forced, it didn’t matter at this point. I had to have her. Again and again.

So what did that say of me that instead of being eager for her fight, I was rock hard and starving for her threat.

I wanted the day when she finally kissed me back.

I wanted the heartbreak she promised me.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

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CAPTIVITY MADE ME PETTY.

Yet another thing I’d learned about myself since I’d made the colossal mistake of driving to this cursed national park and findinghim.

So far, I’d made a list.

Some revelations, I liked. They showed growth, fortitude, and consideration. Others, I did not. They showed grouchiness, short-temperedness, and the unnerving ability to hold a grudge (despite endless pep talks to myself to look on the bright side, to see a silver lining, to believe in the greater good).

Hah, greater good?

Was I meant to believe this wassupposedto happen? That I was supposed to put up with his behavior and not be annoyed? Even Mother Teresa would’ve been annoyed.

I looked after him, for goodness’ sake!

Tapping my pen against my lips, I scowled at my list. The list I’d made to look like the dating profile I’d filled in what felt like eons ago.

Name:Gemma Ashcroft

Age:Twenty-six

Looking for:Sanity to outwit and outplay a man who isn’t a bad person but does bad things. A man who’s suppressed so much crap only a solid baseball bat to his stupid head will wake him up.