I just want to kill him.
“I had asked about your girlfriends, if you remember. You know—the many. The slimy. The STD filled.”
His eyes narrow. “Well, from the looks of how many men you were dancing with before I asked you, which wasnone, I’d say my nonexistent girlfriends are going about as good as your epic crusade to find a husband.”
I. Hate. Him. So. Much. “Shouldn’t you be tied up with a rope and blindfolded while getting robbed by your latest conquest?”
He chuckles. “Oh, Blair. You do know how to carry a friendly conversation.”
“Only with you. So. Why’d you come?”
He looks down and his golden-green gaze hits me like a spear straight in my heart. “I came to torture you, obviously.”
“I don’t need to be tortured by you. I was tortured enough in high school by your presence, don’t you think? Our breakup wasn’t exactly nice.”
He gives me a mock-startled look. “Wasn’t it? I thought we ended things all peaches and cream.”
“Hence why I hate you now.”
“And why you should keep on hating me.”
I want to explode. Every muscle in my body is wound tight. I’m half a second away from screaming. It takes every bit of restraint to whisper and not scream my next words at him.
“Then why are you here? You just said yourself that I should keep on hating you, yet every chance you get it seems like you want to dance with me, remind me of what you did. I don’t get it. What do you want?”
His hand squeezes mine, and I want to jerk away, but smiles! Storm might be watching! “Perhaps I want to call a truce.”
I laugh. Oh, that’s pure gold, right there. “A truce? You’ve had years to do that.”
“I’ve apologized.”
My jaw falls. “The only reason why you apologized is because I caught you. If I hadn’t caught you, you never would have said sorry. Ever. You are a playboy, Devlin, through and through. You absolutely destroyed me and had no problem watching it all play out. I hated you then, and I hate you now.”
I expect my bold words to shock some sense into him so that he’ll stop torturing himself andmeby asking me to dance.
But instead he stares into the crowd and nods. “You have every right to hate me, Blair, and you should.”
That’s it. That’s all he says. He doesn’t say,Of course you hate me. Perhaps I should find a new dance partner.Nope, he doesn’t do anything normal like that. Devlin just keeps right on dancing.
“I don’t know what you’re up to, but I will always hate you, Devlin Ross,” I bite out. “You’ve proven yourself to be despicable, absolutely lacking in any morals.”
“Thank you.”
That’s even worse. Why doesn’t he fight back? There’s something horrible about telling someone off and they don’t argue. Instead they accept the tongue-lashing.
But Devlin looks almost sad for some reason. Doesn’t matter what it is. I don’t care.
I’m about to keep telling him off when Nana slips through the crowd.
No no no! Not again!
My eyes widen and Devlin follows my gaze. He squints. “Is that your nana?”
“No.”
His gaze swivels from her to me. “Yes, it is. Why’s she—” His eyes flair and he tips his head back, giving me an ample view of his thick neck and manly Adam’s apple. “Thingsarebad, aren’t they? None of y’all are married except Addison, and now your nana’s showed up.”
“You’ve got it all wrong.” As if I’m going to tell him the truth.
