Obsessed (Hostile Takeover #1) by Tawny Taylor Read Free Book Online Page B

corrected.
    My teeth gritted at that statement. Of course this was not my home. It was beautiful and gorgeous and majestic and refined. But it was not my home. And the sooner I found a place of my own, the better. Because it seemed Kent liked having fun at my expense, the asshole. It seemed he was hell bent on making sure I hated him.

 
     
     

     
Chapter 6
    At last Kent released my arm. “Sit.”
    Infuriated, I arched an eyebrow at him. “Really? Is that how you talk to people? You bark orders at them as if they’re dogs?”
    His lips thinned but the tilt of a half-smile remained. “My apologies.” He motioned to the bed. “ Please sit.”
    I decided I didn’t want to sit, despite his invitation. Mostly because to get to the bed I would have to walk past him. Not only were my legs a little shaky right now, but I also didn’t want to get close to him. So I crossed my arms over my chest and shook my head. “No thanks, I prefer standing.” I motioned for him to sit.
    “Fine.” He sat. He stared down at the floor. And I wondered what the point of this so-called conversation was, if he was just going to sit in silence. But finally, he spoke, “What the hell am I doing here?”
    That was a good question.
    He stood, stared into my eyes for a few seconds and then walked away.
    Good riddance.
    I hoped this meant he’d stop with the bossy-big-brother and the tormenting womanizing jerk routines and just leave alone. I had enough to deal with, like, oh, adjusting to my mother’s new marriage, to have to contend with him being a total asshole. I wasn’t interested in talking about that time in April, when I’d almost let him take my virginity. It had been a huge mistake going as far as we had, but it would have been an even bigger one if we’d gone through with it. If I could be honest with myself, and set aside my wounded ego, I would accept that he’d done me a favor that day by refusing to go all the way. He’d known what I hadn’t at the time.
    He’d known what an asshole he was.
    There were no further fireworks that evening. I unloaded my car without any more interruptions. I made myself a sandwich for dinner and then I spent the rest of the night settling into my new room, trying to make it mine. By midnight I had most of my stuff unpacked, but when I looked around, I saw a place that belonged to someone else. A foreign, granted beautiful, room that would never be home.
    Not sleepy, despite all the work I’d done, I barefooted out to the kitchen for a snack. I grabbed an apple and carried it outside.
    Wow, it was gorgeous out here at this time of night. Very warm but not stifling hot.
    Crickets chirped. Birds tittered. The pool’s water burbled. I sat on the edge of the pool and dangled my feet in the water. It was warm but refreshing. I crunched my apple for several minutes, enjoying the juicy sweet flavor of the apple and the gentle caress of the water on my ankles. Then I set the apple aside and plunged into the pool, enjoying the cool world below as I sank.
    Just as my ass hit the pool’s bottom, a splash exploded in my ears and turned the crisp water to churning white. A pair of strong arms circled my body and suddenly my head was breaking the surface.
    Someone had pulled me out of the pool.
    That someone was Kent.
    I wanted to be annoyed. He’d totally destroyed my peace. I hadn’t been drowning.
    But he was raking my hair out of my face, asking, in a tight voice, “Are you all right? Did you fall in?”
    Why did he have to do this? Be kind and sweet when I was just beginning to hate him?
    Electricity arced through my body, pressed against his. He was holding me so tightly. A part of me wanted him to let go. I didn’t want to feel this way. Because I knew nothing good would come of it. But the other part, the stupid part, didn’t. The stupid part of me didn’t give a damn whether I would be hurt or not when he started acting like an asshole again. It just liked this feeling, of exhilaration