She Tried to Poison Me, but My Plant Died First! novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Night Before

The estate was full of men with guns that Saturday night, and all of them were on my father's side.

Rocco walked me up to my old room and stopped at the door.

"I'll take the guest suite," he said.

"The bolt's on your side of the hall."

"I know. I'm giving you the night."

"For what?"

"To think."

He kept his hands in his pockets, and his eyes on the floor.

"Tomorrow your father's going to stand up in front of every family and say my name clean," he said. "People will start telling you what you owe me. Don't let them. You owe me nothing, Nerina."

"Nothing?"

"Not a ring, not a wedding, not a night. If you want to go back to the shelter on Monday, I'll drive you."

I looked at him for a long moment.

"You're really bad at this," I said.

"At what?"

"Being the one who has the upper hand."

I took him by the front of his shirt and pulled him through the door.

I shot the reinforced bolt behind us with one hand, and it slid home with a satisfying clunk.

"There," I said. "That's my answer."

"Nerina..."

"I decided in a supply closet with my face on a vent, Rocco. I decided at the stairs. I decided every time you carried me out of something."

"You don't have to..."

"I want you," I said. "Not because my father signed me over. Despite it."

He made a sound low in his throat.

Then he kissed me so hard that my back hit the door.

I had my hands in his hair, and his were under my vest, tugging at the straps.

He got it off me and let it fall.

He pulled my blazer from my shoulders and my shirt over my head.

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