Page 33 of You Were Warned: Part One

“Do you ever know when to be quiet? This is all your fault, do you know that?! Why provoke me?”

He smiles, and I push the blade down harder, not yet breaking the skin but enough to pierce through his clothes.

“Because you have been driving me out of my mind. I have tried every reasonable approach and was finally forced to be unreasonable. Do you know how hard you are to please, my love? I have been waiting for this day, though I would have preferred if you saw me before you had heart eyes for the dead man walking.”

I scoff. I do not swoon. “You’re seriously deluded if you think I have heart eyes for anyone.”

“I watched you laugh today with him. How many times have I tried to make you do that since I stepped foot on this island? I don’t share what’s mine.”

“You’re unhinged. I’m not yours.”

His smile flips to a frown, and I’m not sure I like that. I have never seen him not smile at me. “No, you’re not. You’ve made that very clear, repeatedly and creatively.” The corner of his mouth quivers. “But I’m yours, whether you want me or not. Tonight I’ve found myself done with being patient.”

My knees are on either side of him, and he lies still beneath me. “I hate you.”

“I love your love language—it speaks directly to my cold, dead heart. You complete me.”

“It. Is. Not. A. Love. Language,” I seethe.

“It is. You’re just not willing to accept it yet. I get it, you have been hurt before. But I won’t give up on you even if you think you hate me.”

I stare down at him, confused that he doesn’t get it. “Do you want to know why I hate you?”

His eyes brighten. “Desperately.”

“I hate your fucking bells. I hate that I can hear you coming, but you still manage to appear out of nowhere. And I hate your stupid face paint, that fucking grin, how every time I insult you, you somehow twist it into a compliment. Somehow I’m sure I could tell you that your existence makes me understand why animals eat their babies, and you’d probably thank me for thinking about you.”

“I would,” he agrees.

“Shut the fuck up—I’m not finished.”

He makes a zipping motion across his lips and stares up at me.

“I hate that you don’t understand boundaries, and you think being told no is a negotiation. I hate that you’ve appointed yourself the love of my life without consulting me in the decision. Also that you call me my love and that you leave shit outside my house. I hate you following me around this island like a bell-covered sexually transmitted infection I can’t get rid of.”

His shoulders shake beneath me, so I glare daggers at him, and he presses his lips together.

“Are you fucking laughing at me?”

He shakes his head.

“I fucking hate you.”

A laugh bursts free from him, and I push the knife in harder, so the tip breaks the skin. “I hate that, too, that nothing bothers you. Nothing embarrasses you, nothing makes you back the fuck off. I could throw you into the ocean right now, and you would crawl onto the beach convinced I planned a romantic swim.”

“That sounds nice.”

“Jester!”

“Raithe.”

“What?” I blink down at him.

“My name is Raithe, in case you wanted to know.”

“I didn’t, and that name sucks too. You just cemented the fact that you are the most irritating person I have ever met, and I know Vero. I think even he is less irritating than you. You’re a walking migraine, a psychotic wind chime. Every time I think you’ve finally reached the absolute limit of how fucking annoying one human being can be, you manage to find another level.”

His stupid fucking grin is back.