Billionaire's Perfect Revenge [18+]

TWENTY

If only I hadn't been so careless...

God, why did I leave the album out there in the open? After making sure Armonica or Brandon didn't get their hands on it, I stupidly left it on the dining top after cleaning up the room. How dumb could I be?

Then again, it wasn't like I was expecting company.

Maddox Richmond just dropped by uninvited.

The asshole. The bane of my existence. The jerk who couldn't keep his dick in his pants.

I thought in exchange for the album, he was probably trying to get his way with me. It wasn't rocket science to read him, the kind of creep that he was.

He wasn't doing an outstanding job of hiding the lust and want from his eyes. I could practically see the reel of that night playing in his mind, in the way the corner of his lips twitched to the side, the way he held me close and breathed in my scent and the shudder that travelled down his chest.

All the signs were there.

Except, it wasn't as if with him in the same room I could think of something else either.

It was impossible to not have such filthy thoughts. The energy between us was too much to not give a damn.

The spark was still there, stronger than ever.

But I couldn't give in. My self-respect was way more important than satisfying my physical needs. It had to be.

Although the warm hum buzzing in my veins was compelling me to do something absolutely contrary, something outrageous, something that I knew I would regret the next morning. I had to remember that he was the man I hate. He deserved every agony of hell for making me and mom go through all that in the past. We lost our home, my job, mom's shop and every hope of survival. He was the one who drove us out of the fucking town.

God, I hate him!

Yet, there was something so strong between us. The pull. The gravitation that shoved us together repeatedly. I had thought that I could contain it, and keep those feelings in check. And I almost succeeded the entire previous month. But then he showed up at the wedding, and all my resolve threatened to fall apart. He was probably the only man in the world I wanted to punch and kiss at the same time.

Damn, I was going crazy, wasn't I?

No matter what, though, no matter how fucked-up my emotions were when it came to him, I couldn't let myself get played by him. He already tricked me once. And I would be a fool to let that happen again.

After I gave him all the choices in exchange for the album, the ones that I had no intention of keeping—my only purpose was to distract him for enough time and grab the album when I had the chance—I concluded he was only here to bug me and nothing else. He had no intent to return the album. Like he had no intent to return my home.