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Somehow, I managed to look up at Quentin without collapsing from emotional overload.

He touched me. And he was warm.

It was simply a physical characteristic of his body. Heat. Nothing special. But for someone who had grown up surrounded by cold, such a warm touch was something unfamiliar.

No violence. No cold.

Warmth.

“Let me go,” I said calmly, while the hurricane of emotions inside me threatened to break out of me in the form of ice.

But Quentin didn't let go of me. On the contrary. His grip tightened, not painfully, but firmly enough to make me feel dizzy.

There was nothing I wanted more than to feel Erik's warmth on my skin. Warmth that could melt all my ice walls. But I would never let him know that.

“Julie.”

This man really wanted to threaten me...

If he knew that my hormone-driven body liked the way he was touching me, that it wanted him to take both my hands in his firm grip and pick up right where we'd left off in his car, our bodies producing heat, warmth, tightly pressed against one another, driven by lust and despair...

God, Julie.

“Or I'll make J forget,” I blurted out the words I had prepared as a last resort. “Everything.”

Quentin's expression reflected how I felt whenever I returned from Gloria's Tempesta lessons.

Empty.

“You won't do that,” he whispered unexpectedly hoarsely, a strange, glassy gleam in his eyes.

“Don't challenge me,” I replied more sharply than I intended, before – against my body's urge to remain still and wait for his next threat – I snatched my hand away, spun around, and left the lab with my head held high.

“Julie!” I heard Quentin call behind me, but this time I quickened my pace. “Damn it, Julie!”

It took everything I had to play the cold Julie and twice as much not to react to his words. Because his voice spoke to J, who still lived somewhere inside me and was not ready to let go of Erik.

Chapter 11

Quentin

I Want You Dead

Two Feet, Allie Cabal

She could pretend to be J's friend, but I saw right through her. J was her secret weapon against me. The last resort for whatever purpose.

Somehow, this scheming witch had managed to track down the person who meant more to me than I could ever put into words. And I hated that Julie had me in the palm of her hand.

No matter how much I tried to ignore it, I knew I had to take action before J came to any harm.

All because of my carelessness, damn it!

I twirled the welded gold rings on my finger and watched as Miles, leaning back in my sectional couch that was much too big for me alone, rolled his black shirt sleeves back down without even glancing at me.

I thought I spotted the hint of a smirk on his lips.

The guy was strange, but we got along in an equally strange way. And since the thing with J, the many projects I was working on, and all the crap with Julie Blair, I hadn't had the nerve to beat myself up for breaking my principles by making him my partner.