My Summer in London (My Summer #1)(21)

“Displaying utmost concern for your well-being deems me a boring person?” She and I would never see eye-to-eye; therefore, there was no point in indulging ourselves with more argument. Sending her a steady gaze, I took a moment to study her face. “Well, that bloody well sums it up, doesn’t it? I’ll wait outside. If you’re not there in five minutes, don’t bother coming out.”

She opened her mouth just as I spun around and left her there, flummoxed at my treatment of her. I had the utmost respect for women, but whenever Serena was concerned, she drove me to a place where my mental capacity was nil and the emotional drive too high to see much else.

Emerging from the insufferable house, I ignored the jovially drunk crowd as I purposely sought the confines of my car. I pulled my keys out of my pocket, and I had just disengaged my alarm when I felt someone push from behind, instantly making me face my pseudo attacker.

“God, you’re so infuriating, Cruz!” Serena screeched at the top of her lungs, her cheeks red and her vivid green jewels wildly glittering at me. “You drive me f*uking crazy!”

I drove her crazy? Seriously? Huh.

“This is bloody mental,” I muttered, not meaning to engage in a full-blown fight with her. She seemed as though she was ready to have a bloody showdown, and I wasn’t going to bait her.

“What the f*uk is wrong with you? I just don’t f*uking get you! One minute, you were all over me, and then the next, you treat me like shit. And the most shocking thing of all is you’re f*uking engaged! Is this what you do, toy around with women’s minds just for the hell of it? ’Cause let me tell you, it’s just plain cruel.”

Bloody. f*uking. Hell. And back.

“I might have this random case of selective amnesia because I don’t seem to recall ever toying with you.” No matter how much I tried to squelch the need to disengage from the escalating fight, she was making it too hard. She knew what buttons to push.

Gritting my teeth, I groaned loudly as I tried not to capture how enticingly beautiful she looked. God, what the f*uk am I going to do with her?

“You know what? Forget you.”

She looked wild, intense, and utterly breathtaking when impassioned, but I simply couldn’t. I had given my promise to Ivy, and it was best I remember that solemn promise that signified the ring she had on.

Peeling my eyes away from her, I muttered, “Suit yourself,” before opening the car door, willing to leave this damning place.

“Asshole,” she spat back with fire and so much more.

“Don’t tempt me, Serena. It’s already late, you’re sloshed, and I don’t have an ounce of patience to deal with any of this.” I meant it. She was too dangerous to be around because I was a hairsbreadth away from wanting to break the promise I had given to Ivy and indulge in this intense feeling Serena evoked in me.

“Tempt you? Tempt you to do what?” She was little miss devil incarnate, yet she hadn’t a clue how much she affected me and pretty much all the men around her.

She petrified me, I admitted, but I wasn’t ready to give up. No. It wasn’t going to be easy to keep her at arm’s length, but it must be done.

“Nothing. You don’t tempt me at all, not specifically in that department.” I knew it was going to put a dent in her confidence, but she had to stop goading me into a fight … and everything else.

My response hit a raw nerve. I could see it in her face, though the fire in her eyes didn’t ebb. In fact, it had a reverse effect; it glowed more brightly.

Closing the gap between us, her body almost touched my chest before she took a deep breath and raised her chin to meet me in the eye, ready to test my limits. “So if I strip naked and throw myself at you, you’d decline me, Cruz?”

“Certainly,” I said effortlessly. The image she painted already had my cock aching, but I wasn’t going to let my dick rule me into submission.

“I’m not going to lie. That hurt very much …” She made a small nod, as if comforting herself. “But I’m consoling myself with the thought that you’d probably be a lazy bore-fest in the sack, anyway, so yay me.”

My nostrils flared, but I admired myself for not allowing her jabs to affect me. I could do this. She was simply a woman. Though I was attracted to her, at the end of the day, she was simply … a woman.

“All right, Serena. Now that we’ve settled the disputes, can we move along? I still have a company to run in the morning, in case that significant bit escaped your drunken mind.”

“Whatever,” she huffed out before she rounded to the other side of the car then opened the door and slid inside, slamming the door.

Turning the ignition, I didn’t immediately drive off as expected. I could feel immense tension radiating off her, which made me contemplate if I should apologize. Then I argued that, by doing so, she might mistake my gesture as encouragement. Therefore, I was left with few options. It was a delicate situation, and I wasn’t sure how to go about it anymore.

“Serena—”

“Don’t. Just don’t.” She said it in a way that told me that she was done with me, that it was better to leave it be, suspended just like we were, leaving me in a confused state of mind.

Explosive sexual chemistry, one that wasn’t explored, was a bloody bitch to a man’s sanity.