Liar (Madison Kate #2)(49)

"You're fucking right, you did!" Kody bellowed, angrier than I could ever remember hearing him. "I swear to fucking god, Archer D'Ath, you need to sort your shit out with her before Steele and I murder you ourselves. We've both had enough!"

I hurried away from the gym corridor but not fast enough. Kody caught up to me as I ducked into the kitchen, and grabbed me by the wrist again.

"Stop it!" he snapped at me when I struggled and tried to wrench my arm away. This time, though, he was prepared and simply held on. I was no match for his strength, so it was entirely pointless trying to pull away when he'd made up his mind. "Just stop it, MK. You're seriously going to let Arch push your buttons like that? He knew exactly what to say to rile you up, and look!"

My eyes narrowed to a poisonous glare, and my heart frosted over. "It doesn't matter if he was deliberately trying to set me off. Is it true or not, Kody? The look on your face kinda gives it away."

"Yes, it's true," Kody replied, and my frozen heart shattered into jagged shards. "I didn't know how he was going to do it, and fuck me, MK, if I'd known..." He shook his head, looking bitterly frustrated. "I swear to you, I never asked him to do that. To threaten you like that. I just wanted you safe. Is that honestly so hard for you to understand?"

Fucking Bree was in my brain, her voice echoing Kody's words almost exactly and tempering my blistering anger. Not enough to make me just forgive and forget but... enough. Enough that I didn't punch Kody in his beautiful face, and enough that I wavered. It was enough, and he pushed his advantage.

"Madison Kate, I promise you, I would never have let your father follow through on that shit. Never." His emerald eyes were dead serious, silently begging for my forgiveness or, at the very least, my understanding.

Bitterness welled up in my throat. "No, but you were happy to let me believe it. Anything to keep me in line, right?"

"Anything to keep you alive, yes!" He shouted his reply, and his fingers tightened on my wrist to the point of painful. "If it means keeping you breathing, then I'd do it again a hundred times over. I can live with you hating me, but I can't live knowing I failed to keep you safe."

"Well that's lucky," I spat at him with venom, "because I do hate you. All of you."

Kody laughed an arrogant, humorless sound. "See, that's the real reason you're so pissed off right now, isn't it? Because you don't hate me. You haven't hated me for months now, and even when Arch tells you something like that, you still don't hate me."

I seethed with fury at his audacity. "You're telling me what I'm feeling now? I must have missed the memo where you became a psychic. Go on then, Kodiak. Tell me what I'm thinking now."

He gave an arrogant smirk. "You're thinking you want to punch me, but it's not what you actually want to do."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, of course. Enlighten me, oh great and omnipotent Kodiak. What is it that I actually want to do?" My sarcasm was thicker than molasses and my glare like razor blades.

Kody's cocky smile spread wider. "This," he replied, giving my wrist a sharp yank that made me stumble and fall against his chest. His free hand cupped my face, and before I could even catch my balance, his lips were on mine in a crushing kiss.

I gasped, foolishly kissing him back for a moment of insanity before I wrenched myself free and took two steps away. Shaking my head, I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand like I could erase the searing heat of his lips so easily.

"No," I muttered, my conviction weaker than wet tissue paper. "No, you threw away your chances with me when you went behind my back to my father. You tried to have me shackled, Kody, and that's unforgivable."

"So don't forgive me," he declared, throwing his hands wide in a dramatic gesture that only seemed to give him a bigger presence in the kitchen. His sweatpants hung low on his hips, and his upper body was all muscles and ink. Bodies like his should be illegal because they made women like me lose all sense of sanity or self-preservation.

"Spend the rest of our lives making me pay for lying to you, if that's what will make you feel better. But I don't fucking regret it, and I won't fucking apologize for it. You know we've had four new deliveries from your stalker since you got out of the hospital? Not to mention what could have happened yesterday if we hadn't been there." His tone was aggressive and passionate, and I swallowed heavily with anxiety. Four new deliveries? Photos or dolls? Or something new? What about whoever had tried to kill me? Fucking hell... maybe he had a point.

I wrapped my arms around myself, ducking my gaze away from his intuitive, soul-searching stare. I'd backed myself against the pantry door, so I couldn't even make an easy escape without pushing past him.

"Kody..." I started, then licked my lips as I searched for the words. I was so, so angry at him for what he'd done. For fucking lying to me and letting me think it was all on Archer and my father. But...

"Pretend to hate me all you fucking want, Madison Kate," he continued, stepping closer and crowding my personal space once more, "but don't even try to pretend you don't feel this magnetic pull between us. Don't fucking act like you're not basically crawling out of your own skin to fuck me right now."

His hands planted on the pantry door to either side of my head, and he leaned in, hovering his lips over mine just a fraction of an inch away from kissing me again. He wasn't going to, though. I knew it as certainly as I knew he was right. God damn him straight to hell, he was right.