Blue eyes met mine from over her shoulder and I recognized her immediately.
The petulant bitch.
The spoiled brat.
The evil, bored teenager who shoved me to my knees just for the fucking fun of it.
The Rose vanity was beaming behind Lisbeth’s eyes, turning the blue into liquid flame, tempting me in ways I thought I’d never feel again.
Her fucking pride is what made her so damn desirable. Made me hate her so fucking much.
Made me love her.
Connor was right to warn me about walking in. But not for the reason he thought.
This was Lisbeth at her most dangerous. When she breaks free of proper morals and reveals the wicked bitch within.
This is who I wanted to tear apart my entire life.
This is who I always wanted to fight.
The adrenaline from the match resurged within me, my pulse pounding harder, my tongue pressing against the inside of my cheek.
I met her bitchy stare and narrowed my eyes on her...fucking daring her to try her shit with me again.
Leaning back against the door, I trailed my gaze up the line of her bare legs, over the ridiculously short skirt of the server uniform, over her heart shaped ass I still planned to bite, and along the straight eloquent set of her spine and shoulders.
Here she was.
My Lisbeth Rebel Rose.
I’ve been waiting for you...
I crossed my arms over my chest, a grin tugging at my lips, and she fingered a crystal ashtray that I’d never used.
Her head snapped around to stare at me from over her shoulder, her legs stilling in place.
“Is there a reason you’re breaking all my things?”
A single blink of her eyes, dark lashes dropping and lifting again to reveal menace behind liquid blue.
“Like you care about any of this shit.” She lifted the ashtray, wiggled it. “Do you even know who the designer is? How much it cost?”
I shrugged a negligent shoulder. Fuck if I knew. I wasn’t the one who’d decorated the room.
Lisbeth scoffed. “Exactly.” She tossed it over her shoulder to let it smash against the ground.
My voice was gravel. “I hope you know you’ll be cleaning this up. I’ll have someone fetch you a feather duster and your maid uniform.”
“No need,” she grinned, “I much prefer dressing like a cheap slut. It’s so much fun entertaining wealthy men.”
My lips curled. “You’re entertaining me at the moment.”
“Just like your slave did?”
She tossed an empty crystal decanter off the side bar near the fireplace, the shattering glass a sharp sound against the tense silence between us.
Spinning to face me, she asked, “Did she scream when you fucked her? Do you enjoy taking women against their will?” A roll of her eyes. “I didn’t know you were so desperate.”
My brow arched, but I didn’t react beyond that. I was about to take her against her will, make her scream just to show her what I thought of her bitchy attitude.
If she was lucky, I wouldn’t demand she crawl on hands and knees through the broken glass just so I could do what I wanted.
“Careful, Lisbeth. I might think you’re jealous.”
Her eyes widened, not much, not enough that anybody else would have noticed. But I wasn’t just anybody. I was a man who’d watched her for years.
My heart beat hard inside my chest as everything about me became hard.
Lisbeth’s anger was mixed with fear. There was no other flavor like it.
She was as agitated as a spitting cat, and I wanted nothing more than to stroke her fur backwards.
Fuck that.
I wanted to pin her against a wall, lift that ridiculous skirt up another inch, and shove my cock so far inside her that it would be a fitting celebration of my victory.
“Me,” she laughed, “jealous of you?”
Her gaze dragged down me with disgust I hadn’t seen since we were kids. “You don’t have to worry about that, Callan, you don’t have a single thing that I want. You’re nothing more than a pathetic excuse for a man, a Rose in name and nothing-“
I was across the room and on her before she could finish the thought, a surprised shriek muffled behind the hand I clapped over her mouth while my boots ground the broken glass into the floor.
Lifting her with just my palm against her chin, I grinned when her bare feet kicked, her heels thudding against the wall.
Mouth to her ear, my words came out on a dark hiss.
“Keep talking, brat. I haven’t seen you like this since we were kids. What were you going to say to me?