Page 212 of Hate to Love You

I raise my hand to her solid wooden front door, and knock politely.

But there is no answer.

Shit, did she go to bed? I mean, it is nearly five in the morning.

However, when I press my ear to the door I can hear shuffling inside, and what sounds like Abby muttering to herself.

I knock again. This time louder than the first.

“Go away, Roman,” Abby suddenly snaps from the other side. “I don’t want to speak to you.”

“Yes, you do. Let me in.”

“No!” She shouts back. “Leave!”

“Abigail,” I snort, shaking my head and biting back the instant frustration her stubbornness invokes in me. “We both know that’s not true. Now open the door.”

“It is true! I don’t want to see you ever again, you possessive, chauvinistic, egotistical, asshat! Oh, and I quit!”

“No, you don’t,” I bite back, her tone grating my patience which is only exacerbated when I notice Oleg and the other men that I had posted up outside her house, looking over at me standing here…getting rejected.

“I just want to talk to you.”

“Fuck off! And take your men with you!”

“Abby, stop being difficult and just open the fucking door,” I growl. “Don’t make me ask you again.”

“Oh, I’m not making you do anything!” She laughs venomously. “I’m telling you to go the fuck home because I don’t want to see you.”

Her continued obstinance causes my rage to boil in my veins. I cannot believe the utter audacity of this woman.

Does she have any idea who the fuck I am? And what I could do to her? Especially for killing off my men, a crime that would earn anyone else a one-way ticket to a slow and painful death?

I briefly debate just telling my men to kick down her stupid wooden door, but at the same time I realize that course of action likely won’t win me any points with her.

However, as I raise my fist, intent on rattling her front door off its hinges, I’m immediately reminded of my conversation with Jaxon just a few hours ago.

“But of all the stupid, selfish reasons we have to gamble with our lives, love is perhaps the only one that’s actually worth the risk. And the fight.”

I pause, unclenching my fist and instead pressing my hand to the door as I take a deep breath.

Godfuckingdamn it. He’s right.

While I’m completely unsure of how exactly I’m supposed to win the love of the girl behind the door, who is deliberately refusing to open it and let me inside, I do know that smashing it into her foyer certainly isn’t the answer.

And no matter how much I try to fight it, and no matter the fight I might have on my hands to be with her, or even how insane it is to say any of this out loud, I know exactly how I feel about her.

…And what I’m willing to risk to have her in my life.

Everything. Every. Single. Thing.

Closing my eyes I take a deep breath, and try the only thing left I have left in my arsenal.

“Foxy, baby,” I say softly. “Let me in.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

ABBY