Twisted Hate: An Enemies with Benefits Romance

old friend brushed her hair out of her face. It had been an intimate, knowing
touch, the kind you only gave someone you’d slept with.
Given Jules’s reaction when he left, she hadn’t been thrilled to see him,
but that didn’t stop the irrational beast inside me from rearing its ugly head.
“What guy?” she gasped. She was a mess—hair tousled, lips swollen,
skin slicked with sweat and marked from my teeth.
It was the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen.
I ignored the strange pang in my chest and lowered my head until my lips
brushed hers. “Your friend from the club.”
Jules hadn’t provided any details other than the old friend line, and I

---

thought that would be enough. But it was an hour later, and I still couldn’t
shake my irritation at seeing them together.
She stiffened. She had her limbs wrapped around me while I braced her
against the living room wall, and I felt the tension in every part of her body.
“He’s what you said. A friend.” She cocked an eyebrow. “Are you really
talking about another guy while you’re still inside me?”
“I’ll do whatever I like when I’m inside you.” I pinched her nipple, hard,
in punishment. “How close of a friend is he?”
Her eyes glittered with amusement even as her mouth parted at my rough
touch. “Jealous?”
“Not even a little bit.”
It mirrored our conversation at Hyacinth, and like at the club, I scoffed at
the suggestion I was jealous. I didn’t get jealous, especially not over women.
People got jealous of me.
“One week into our pact and you’re already breaking the rules,” Jules
purred. “I expected more of you.”
“I’m. Not. Jealous,” I snarled, emphasizing each word with a hard thrust
inside her.
Her breath hitched. “Could’ve fooled—”
Jules let out a muffled whine of protest when I clamped my hand over her
mouth.
“I only want to hear you when you’re begging and coming, Red.” I
smiled at the indignation in her eyes, but the smile disappeared a second later
when sharp pain lanced into my palm.
I yanked it away with a shocked hiss. She fucking bit me!
“My bad.” A lazy gleam of satisfaction replaced her indignation. “Your
hand was in my way.”
A growl rose in my throat. I pinched her nipple again until she let out a
sharp cry, her face screwed in pleasure and pain.
“That’s what I want to hear,” I said.
I picked up speed, my cock pistoning in and out of her in a punishing
rhythm until she lost her words to a string of moans and came again.
Jules’s head fell back, her mouth falling open in a breathy scream from
the force of her orgasm. Fuck. The sensation of her cunt rippling around me
was too much to take, and I came right after with a loud groan.
My blood pumped with a mixture of lust and anger, and I sank my teeth
into the curve of her neck while the high from my orgasm faded. Her

---

cinnamon and spice scent filled my nostrils, drugging me almost as much as
the sound of her delicious cries.
“For someone who claims to hate me so much, you sure scream a lot for
me.” I lifted my head and rubbed my thumb over her blossoming hickey with
satisfaction.
The primal, territorial part of me loved that I’d marked her. I wanted to
shove it in her old friend’s face and declare her off-limits unless he wanted a
highly unpleasant meeting with my fist.
Just because I didn’t like Jules didn’t mean I wanted anyone else to see
her like this. Body languid, face drowsy with contentment as she stretched
against me. None of the prickly armor she wore in public.
This was a side of her only a select few got to see, and no one else was
invited to the fucking club.
“It’s a scream of disgust, Chen,” she drawled. “I’m sure you’re used to
those.”
I withdrew from her and chuckled when she almost collapsed on the
ground without me holding her up.
She glared at me, eyes spitting fire.
“Then it seems you have a disgust kink, because you can’t get enough of
me.” I tossed my condom in the nearby trash can and pulled on my pants.
“No more tonight, Red, or I’ll have to start charging per orgasm. But if you
want more of my cock, I could be persuaded, depending on how nicely you
beg.”
“Fuck you.” She snatched her dress off the floor.
“Hmm, not your best work. You might want to practice the nicely part.”
My chuckle morphed into a full laugh when she stormed past me toward
the bathroom, her head held high.
She was so easy to rile up.
Since Jules was taking forever and a day in the shower, I used the
opportunity to clean up the mess we’d made in the living room—a toppled
coat tree, knocked-over picture frames.
I’d just finishing straightening up when a boom of thunder cracked the
silence. My head jerked up, and I crossed to the window and pulled aside the
curtains.
“Fuck.”
Somehow, the light drizzle from earlier had exploded into a full-blown
storm. Another crack of thunder rattled the old wooden bones of the house,

---

and rain lashed against the windows in such thick sheets it created tiny, fast-
flowing river systems on the glass.
“What’s going on?”
I turned to see Jules fresh out of the shower, her hair damp around her
shoulders and her body wrapped in a tiny towel.
My cock perked with interest, but I ignored the horny bastard. It’d had
enough for the night. It was time for my brain to take the wheel, and my brain
told me the faster I got Jules out of here, the better.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t let her leave when it was storming like this
outside.
“The apocalypse started while we were fucking,” I said.
She peered over my shoulder and rolled her eyes. “You’re being
dramatic. It’s a little rain.” She fished her phone from the table where she’d
left it.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling a car.” Her brow puckered. “The price surge when it rains is
ridiculous—hey!”
I ignored her protest as I snatched the phone out of her hand. “Unless you
have a death wish, you are not getting in a car in these conditions.”
“It’s rain, Josh. Water. I’ll be fine.”
“Water that cars can slide and get into accidents in,” I growled. “I work in
the ER. Do you know how many car accident cases I see from storms? A
lot.”
“You’re being paranoid. I’m not—”
Our phones shrieked with emergency flash flood warning text alerts.
“That’s it.” I shoved her phone into my pocket. “You’re staying until the
rain lets up.”
I wouldn’t let anyone, not even my worst enemy, go home in these
conditions. The chances were slim, but if anything happened to her…
My throat constricted.
I couldn’t have another death on my hands.
Jules must’ve seen the conviction in my eyes, because she sighed in
resignation. “Can I at least borrow something to wear while I wait? I’m not
spending the next God knows how many hours in my club dress.”
Half an hour later, she’d changed into one of my old T-shirts and we’d
settled on the couch, arguing over which movie to watch.
“Too boring.”

---

“Too cheesy.”
“No horror. I hate horror.”
“That’s a kid’s movie, Red.”
“So? Kid’s movies can be good.”
“Yeah. If you’re a fucking kid.”
Jules responded with a sweet smile. “Funny you should say that,
considering how hard you cried watching The Lion King. Last year.”
I scowled. Ava. How many times did I have to tell her not to share every
single fucking thing about me with her friends?
“Mufasa didn’t deserve to die, okay?” I snapped. “At least I’m not such a
wuss I hide behind my hands every time the poster for a horror movie pops
up.”
“I’m not a wuss. I just dislike ugly things, which is why I try not to look
at you—don’t you dare put The Ring on!”
“Try and stop me.”
After more useless bickering, we finally settled on the fairest way to
choose—by closing our eyes and scrolling until we hit the lucky selection.
It was…Finding Nemo.