Behind the Green Curtain by Riley Lashea Read Free Book Online Page B

was
the real question, the one to which she wanted an answer.
    The sudden outrage that appeared on
Amelia’s face was so unprecedented, it was deeply gratifying, and Caton felt
the smoking embers inside her spark into flame.
    “Excuse me?” Amelia returned, the
two words laced with so much honest anger, they sounded like an explosion,
despite how quietly Amelia uttered them.
    “Your heart must be hypothermic.”
Caton couldn’t stop the assessment after seeing how effective her first words
had been against Amelia’s seemingly-impenetrable exterior.
    When Amelia stood, it was in a
deliberate manner that made Caton swallow nervously at its intent. It was as if
she had spoken the catch phrase that triggered an assassin, and Amelia looked
decidedly deadly as she approached the doorway. Trying to stand more erect,
Caton was determined to withstand whatever was coming at her, but Amelia’s
presence was imposing as she moved closer, mere inches left between them.
    “You don't know anything about me,”
Amelia declared, her always-shielded gaze filled with barely-restrained fury.
    Caton had hoped to get a rise out
of her. She didn’t expect the amount of anger, or the underlying passion, that
radiated off the other woman, scorching the air between them.
    “Oh, please,” she countered, too
far in the swamp to return to solid terrain. “You are not a mystery. You
married too young and you did it for money. Your husband is aware of this fact
and that’s why he prefers to fuck outside of your marriage, which is just fine
with you, because you don’t want anyone touching you anyway.”
    Amelia appeared stunned, whether by
the fact Caton had the nerve to say it or by the accuracy of the statement,
Caton wasn’t sure, but when Amelia’s anger subsided enough for other emotions
to rise to the surface, Caton looked away to avoid them. Thinking Amelia had
the capacity to feel was what had gotten her into trouble before.
    “You’re fired.” Amelia’s voice
wavered for the first time.
    “I figured,” Caton countered, only
realizing how much she was shaking as she turned to the stairs and rushed
unsteadily down them, the consequence hitting her square in the chest and
making even the downward trek arduous. All the things she could have done, and
she had done the one thing she absolutely couldn’t. But she couldn’t take it
back. She wouldn’t if she could.
    Stepping off the bottom stair in
the foyer, the insults she didn’t get the chance to lob bounded so wildly in
her head, Caton didn’t hear Amelia behind her until a vice tightened on her arm
and she was yanked around like a rag doll. Amelia’s fingers on her almost
violent, Caton could feel her heart pound against them.
    “You think that’s all that I am,”
Amelia harshly whispered, mask further slipping. “But you do not know me.”
    In the thick of it, Caton didn’t
have time to contemplate the fact that Amelia had followed her for the sole
purpose of continuing to fight.
    “I know how you treat people,” she
returned, though it wasn’t true. If anything, it was selfish. She knew only how
Amelia treated her, and she was tired of being made to feel like a commodity
that could be put to use and then disregarded. “I know it has no effect on you.
Nothing has any effect on you.”
    “That is not true,” Amelia
countered, blistering gaze forcing Caton to avert her eyes. “Just because I am
not screaming at the top of my lungs or bursting into tears every five seconds
doesn’t mean I don’t feel. I don’t... I am not...” She couldn’t seem to find
the words, or to admit them.
    “What?” Caton returned her gaze to
Amelia’s. “Frigid? Dead inside?” The descriptions proved themselves on target
when Amelia flinched in response. “Please. I have never met anyone so
completely devoid of emotion,” she continued, not sure why it mattered so much.
“You could hit a kid and drive over the body. I could walk around here naked
and you wouldn’t even be