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Axe ripped his mouth out of her hold and jacked forward on his hips "Don’t put your hands on ain"

"I didn’t want to touch you in the first place--"

"Liar"

She recoiled as if he’d cursed at her But she recovered quick "You’re jealous"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You didn’t like the way he was looking at me Admit it And if you try to deny that you wantin our favor’ speech last night You re at the foot of my bed? You were quite articulate about it all"

As she arched a superior, pure-as-the-driven-sno at hi Maybe her Maybe hiht now, I’ your cousin’s offer to pay me to stay away fro to stay on her roll--but then clamped it closed as if the words he’d spoken had sunk in on a delay

"Peyton did what?"

"He caht and told me I wasn’t allowed to take this job, and when I told hi me he’ll double, triple, Powerball the salary"

"Why would he do that?" she mumbled as if she couldn’t fathom any kind of "why"

"Because people like me are only allowed to fix your house or your car or work in your garden" Okay, noas getting worked up again "We don’t matter to people like you We’re just another commodity to be bartered back and forth over--"

"That is absolutely not true!"

Before he could stop himself, Axe sneered, "Oh, really? Well, would you like to kno oddaiven that you’re all about the fucking talking My father is dead because the aristocrats he orking for locked all of the staff and the carpenters out of the safe roohtered, even though there was plenty of rooed to be allowed in, but your people let them die That’s how my only family was killed And that’s the exact same attitude that makes your fuck-twit of a cousin think he can buys with your professor over there"

There was a long, tense silence

And then Elise cleared her throat "I aedy"