“Not buying it,” I grit out and step closer to him in the midst of my fury.
Standing this close to Finn, the height difference is highly noticeable, and I have to stretch out my neck to meet his eyes. I want to move away as soon as I realize my confidence disappeared when the gap between us did, but I also don’t want him to think he affects me.
Because he doesn’t.
He’s just a rude boy rotting on the inside.
Doesn’t matter that the outside is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen…
“You can’t keep it like that forever,” I point out.
I see the muscles in his jaw quiver. We’re way too close to each other now, and I try to hold my breath not to smell that delicious, earthy cologne he wears.
Then he drops the act.
“Watch me.” His voice is darker, rougher, and my traitorous heart climbs up my throat.
“Eat my ass, Richards.” I turn away.
“My pleasure. Bend over,”he calls behind me.
Unbelievable.
I don’tbother replying and flip him off over my shoulder. I hear him laugh at my parting gift just before I head back inside the freezer he calls a house.
There’s a pit in my stomach.
A big one.
He didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, but I’m more worried than ever before. Because now, I know our deal didn’t change a thing…
He still wants me gone.
And he’s not going to stop until I break.
* * *
Finn
“Was the tape really necessary?” Theo sneers from the kitchen, his head inside my fridge as he sifts through it. Tossing the video game controller in my hand onto the living room table, I sag into the couch we haven’t left all morning.
“Considering the girl can’t take a fucking hint? Yes,it is.”
I spent most of last night labeling nearly everything in the house, including the food in the fridge, as mine. I couldn’t find sticky notes, so I settled for masking tape instead.
The house sitter was getting too comfortable for my taste, and if my name in black Sharpie everywhere doesn’t remind her that she’s in my fucking house, I don’t know what will.
I was hoping yesterday’s thermostat ploy would do the trick, but the girl was right about one thing. I couldn’t keep it like that forever. It was cold as fuck in the house, and when it started hailing in the afternoon, we were forced back inside.
I must’ve lasted two hours before wussing out and removing the passcode. I could handle being cold, and I couldn’t have cared less about Theo bitching that his balls were turning into icicles, but then I saw Lexie shivering in her dog bed, and I knew it was over.
No prank is worth Lexie feeling this way.
Ever.
“You don’t have shit in there, Richards. I’m starving,” Theo complains for the third time today.
“You’re crashing at my place rent-free, asshole. Now, I have to feed you, too?” I scoff, but deep down, I’m right there with him.