Page 66 of Wild Card

I rear back ever so slightly. I hadn’t expected her to bite back to this degree. “Just to be a dick?” My tongue pops into my cheek. “Is this the famed gentle approach you take with everyone who practices yoga with you?”

I catch myself drifting toward her, drawn in her direction. Forcing myself to stop, I prop a hip against the railing at the top of the steps, crossing my arms like a barricade against the urge to move any closer.

A dry, unamused laugh lurches from her throat as she pads up the steps toward me like she’s ready to square off. She comes right to my level. Face-to-face. “Bash, whatever we’re doing, it’s not yoga. I don’t owe you anything. And if you thought being in touch with my mind and body means I have to be a soft-spoken pushover just to accommodate your shit moods, then you thought wrong.”

I blink, watching the gears turn in her head.

She reaches forward, pressing her pointer finger into the center of my chest above my crossed arms. “I’ve done nothing but respect your wishes and your home. I have stayed as far outof your way as possible. Minded my own business. Done only what I was asked here to do. So it’s really very simple. Ifyouhave a problem withme, then don’t seek me out. Because from where I’m sitting, I was minding my own business, and you popped up out of nowhere to scold me.”

She sucks in a breath, like her rant is over. But then she hits me with a killing blow. “I’ve already lived in the type of household where it was preferable for me to be seen but not heard, and I’m not signing up for that again. So get your shit together and let me have a moment to myself. Maybe you should go take one for yourself too. The sand is that way.” She points down at the water. “Go get grounded.”

I should back down, but I don’t. She’s right. I’m being a raging dick, and she’s seeing past it all.

“Nothing about my chakras now? Which one is it again? My crown chakra?”

Gwen scoffs. “I mean, to be frank, all your chakras are fucked.”

“Oh yeah?”

“You’re repressed and lashing out.”

My molars clamp as I gaze down on her.

“And bitter. And so tense that I don’t think your body would let you take a proper deep breath even if you tried.”

“Wow. Encouraging. Please enlighten me. Tell me more about the ways that I’m fucked.”

She tilts her head and purses her lips, assessing me. Her eyes trail over my body in a way that makes my skin hum. “Your throat chakra is fucked because you can’t, for the life of you, say out loud what’s in your head. Never mind your heart chakra—you definitely won’t acknowledge anything going on in there. But based on your current behavior, I’m going to go say that one is positively brimming with jealousy.”

I roll my eyes, a feeble cover. “Is that so, Gwen? And what would I be jealous of?”

She smirks now, crossing her arms to mimic my motion. “I don’t know, Bash. Whatwouldyou be jealous of?” Her toe nudges the tip of my boot. “Could it be Tripp? You mad he had what you want?”

My lungs seize. I didn’t expect her to spell it out quite like that.

“I think I’ve made myself pretty clear. I told you what I’d have chosen, and you told me to back off.” She bumps my toe again, leans in close, and whispers, “So now you’ll just mope around feeling sorry for yourself because the timing is all fucked up and you feel like you owe him something you don’t.”

I incline my head toward her, close enough to feel her breath fanning across my jaw. “Careful, Gwen.”

She chuckles, but there’s no humor in it. And she doesn’t back down. Instead, her lips move closer to the shell of my ear. “Or what? You might man up and take something for yourself for once?”

I snap.

I take something for myself for once.

My hands dart out and grip Gwen’s waist.

“You know what?” I snarl, yanking her toward me, staring at her plush mouth as her lips softly part—no doubt to say something infuriating. But I don’t let her get a word in edgewise.

“Fuck it,” I mutter.

Then I kiss her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

GWEN

In a flash, Bash is on me.