Page 51 of Reverence

The second my door closed, the car hummed to life and then he drove off.

“Why did you do that?” She spat, throwing her purse onto the floor.

“Do what?” I asked nonchalantly, dropping my belt next to the purse.

She’d been annoyed, irritated, and slightly worked up in the past but this felt different.

Her facade crumbled, cracking with each passing second.

“Don’t do that, Ares.” She scoffed. “Don’t sit here and play dumb with me. Are you fucking insane?”

I focused on the city, staring out of the window. “Insane? I don’t recall doing anything wrong.” I turned to face her.

“You touched me, practically pressed your dick into my back. You don’t consider that wrong? How many times do I have to tell you this? I don’t like you, I hate being near you. Then you pull something like that, it’s sickening and distracting me from the task at hand.”

My temper flared and I lost it, wrapping my hand around her throat.

My grip wouldn’t cut off her air supply but I dominated the situation and caught her off guard.

“How do you think I feel?” I pulled her closer. “Do you think I want this? I couldn’t stand the sight of you and now you’re plaguing my fucking mind. That’s sickening.”

She held onto my forearm, looking at me with an expression I couldn’t decipher.

“Why do we keep doing this? Why are we always going back and forth? Jesus, you’re a constant affliction. I hate you but I couldn’t handle seeing you dancing with another man.”

Her pulse quickened underneath my fingertips. “I could snuff the life out of you.”

“Then why don’t you do it?” She countered. “You’re the source of all my misery.”

“Then why haven’t you pushed me away?” We held eye contact, both of us rigid with tension.

“Answer me, Rivera. Why aren’t you pushing me away?”

The partition rolled down and I quickly removed my hand from her neck, creating distance between us.

We probably looked guilty, despite not having done anything to be guilty of.

Nicolas looked at us through the rear-view mirror, then shifted his gaze toward me. “I’m checking to make sure you two aren’t killing each other.”

Amala laughed softly and I smiled lazily. “We’ll be at the hotel in a few minutes then we’ll head back to headquarters.”

“If I were going to kill him, I wouldn’t do it when there are witnesses around,” Amala said but I refused to look at her.

I could still feel the lingering effects of the heated discussion.

Nicolas chuckled, coming to a slow stop at a red light. “Who says I wouldn’t happily be an accomplice?”

Despite her attempt at easing the tension, my chest heaved and my blood simmered.

Pulsing through my veins and spreading like wildfire.

We glanced at each other and I shifted towards the door, trying to create more distance between us but that didn’t help.

If anything I could still feel her skin against mine, her warmth seeping into my fingertips and her pulse beneath them.

I was utterly fucked.

Fourteen