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“Is it the love that left me at the courthouse because you were suspicious of me over a photo?” she went on, her voice rising. “Or the love that called me a whore?”
“I didn’t call you a whore!” he barked, eyes burning. “Don’t say that about yourself!”
“You said I have a harem,” she hissed, shoving his chest with both hands. “Isn’t that the same thing, Mr. Kingsley?”
His grip faltered. She grabbed his wrist and tore his hand off her neck, forcefully pushing him away as she stepped back, breath unsteady.
“You walked out before we could get married,” she snapped, eyes glistening but fierce. “You left me standing there like I meant nothing. Not a word, not a reason. The very next day, you replaced me with another woman in the office like I was just another file to discard.”
She took another step back, her voice shaking now.
“And then you had the audacity to drag me back into a restaurant, only to walk out on me again. If that’s the kind of love I’ll get from you for the rest of my life, then I don’t want it!” Her last words came out as a roar.
She looked him dead in the eyes, breathing heavily.
“I hate you,” she whispered, voice cracking. “I fucking hate you for making me feel that way.”
Dant’s body became rigid, every muscle locking in place as dread surged through him.
Anya’s eyes were wild with a suppressed rage she had buried deep inside.
She hadn’t wanted this confrontation. She had walked away quietly, without even a word. But he hadn’t let her. He had chased her, cornered her, pulled her into this moment and forced her to finally break.
“Say it again,” he muttered, his voice chilling enough to freeze anyone else into silence.
Anya didn’t flinch. She gritted out in a harsh breath, “I. HATE. YOU.”
In the blink of an eye, he closed the distance, grabbing her face with both hands and crashing his lips onto hers in a punishing kiss.
It was violent, not with anger—but with all the emotions he couldn’t name. Desperate. Messy. Breathless. His lips moved against hers like a man drowning, trying to take air from her lungs just to stay alive.
She shoved at his chest, pushed at his shoulders, but he refused to let go. Not until the kiss turned rougher, more reckless, more unhinged—until her hands balled into fists against him, and her lungs burned.
Only then did he finally pull back.
And the next second—
Smack.
Her palm struck across his face, sharp and brutal. The sound cracked through the silence of the apartment like lightning.
Chapter 24 Let’s Try Again
The imprint of her palm burned on his cheek.
But he didn’t react with rage.
Instead, his hands reached for her again, trembling as they landed on her shoulders. His voice came out hoarse, broken, the raw edge of his pain seeping through every word.
“Can’t you see how much I love you?” he roared. “How much I fucking want you in my life? But you keep pushing me away. You tell your secrets to everyone but me. Everyone else gets the truth. I get silence. Why amIalways the one left out—while you don’t even explain a damn thing to me?!”
She was appalled.
“Do you even hear yourself?” she shot back, her voice tight with disbelief. “Do you even realize how ridiculous you sound right now?”
She took a shaky breath, chest rising and falling fast.
“Didn’t I try explaining to you over and over again? You were the one who was indifferent to me!Youwalked away! Then you dragged me back just to leave me again. And now that you’vesuddenly decided I’m good enough, you want me back and expect me to give in?”