But he didn’t let me go.
My lips curved with a smile as I rolled my hips slowly, grazing his body just enough to tease.
“Hm.”
“Hm?” he rumbled in my ear. “What’shmabout that?”
I shivered as his breath warmed my skin, but then, even though he was playing right into my hand, I sighed as if this had all become rather tiresome.
“You talk a big game, Max. But if you really wanted me gone, or as far away from you and Camelot Court as I could possibly get, you had the opportunity to make that happen.”
He spun me around to face him.
With my chest pressed against his and his arm banded around my body, he welded us together as if we’d been fused by fire. Readjusting his grip, he kept my wrists locked at the small of my back. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
I lifted my chin and laced my voice with a challenge. “I’m talking about the statute that would have gotten your darlingVone step closer to the grand prize. Drake D’Arthur negotiated a ceasefire now, but that bullet was always in the chamber. It just didn’t make sense to pull the trigger when other people in the room had loaded guns, right?”
“Yeah, so?”
He tightened his hold, pressing our bodies together.
Our chests heaved with the force of our breathing, mine desperate to see what he’d do next as he fought to keep up his charade.
Dropping my chin, I stared at where we aligned, and when I glanced back up, his gaze remained on my breasts. They swelled against his chest with my next breath.
His lips parted.
He was so close to giving in, I could almost taste him. “You want me gone so bad, Max?”
When he dragged his gaze away and met mine, my heart pounded. The war in his eyes hurt to witness.
And I was playing with fire.
I knew that, but I couldn’t help but lean into the burn. “You want me as far away as possible?”
“Yeah,” he said gruffly, without an ounce of believability.
“Well, then why didn’t you take me out of the competition when you had the chance?”
His grip tightened reflexively.
“You said you wanted it.Me. You planned totake what was yours…” When his breath shuddered, I leaned in closer. “You said I’d feel you all the way in my chest. Right here.”
As soon as I pressed our hearts together, he released me and stepped back, flinging my hands away as if my skin burned him.
But the intensity of his stare running over my body revealed the lie he uttered next. “I already told you, Quinn…I don’t fuck quitters. And I don’t want to fuck you.”
Before I could say anything else, before I could even draw a breath, he stormed out of the training room, without so much as a backward glance.
I walked on shaky legs to the chair by the mirrors and picked up the hoodie he’d left behind.
As I sat down, I pulled the giant sweatshirt over my head.
The scent of bergamot and earthy spices overpowered my senses, and adrenaline coursed through my body long after he’d left the room.
But I’d been right about him.
And I wasn’t giving up.
