Free The Anatomy of Jane by Amelia Lefay Page A

and pulling her away from the living room completely.
    I didn’t stop walking, or let go, and I could feel myself getting heated, but I wasn’t sure why. The image of Archibald kissing her hand pissed me off—or was it the shock of seeing her to begin with? Dressed like…
    “Let go!” She kicked me in the shin once we were in the privacy of my childhood bedroom.
    “What the fuck!” I hissed, releasing her hand to grab my now throbbing leg.
    “That’s what I want to know, asshole!” she screamed at me, kicking one more time, forcing me to back away. “How dare you put your lips on me without asking first?”
    “Stop it now!” I yelled when she tried to kick me again. She just lifted her fist. “I was trying to save you!”
    “From what?”
    “Him! He’s a fucking rapist!”
    She froze with her fist still in the air. “What?”
    “Fuck.” I hissed, sitting back on my bed and rolling up my trousers; sure enough, my shin was bleeding. Her heel was one hell of the weapon. “You should be thanking me, not assaulting me.”
    “Says the man who grabbed my ass.” She crossed her arms, still keeping her distance. “What do you mean he’s a rapist?”
    “I wasn’t aware there were differing definitions of rapist,” I snapped at her while wincing when I touched the wound.
    She sighed before looking around the room and opening a few doors until she got into a bathroom. I heard the water turn on for a second, and she came back out with a wet washcloth. Moving to sit on the bed beside me, she grabbed my leg and placed it on her lap.
    “Why is he here if he is a rapist? I thought your mother was running for president,” she said, softly dabbing my shin.
    “Because he wasn’t officially prosecuted for rape. His family paid them off. The victim was some broke college student. The moment she took the money, she left Boston for good. I’m sure there are more like her, but when your father owns one of the biggest financial services companies in the country, you can sweep a lot more under the rug. I kissed you because the only family you don’t mess with is mine. If he thinks you’re mine, you’re safe.”
    She frowned at me and looked up with those big hazel eyes of hers. “You’re this super famous reporter, so why not expose him?”
    “So famous you didn’t even know me when we first met?”
    She pursed her lips to the side, and I was starting to notice she was horrible at controlling her facial expressions.
    “I don’t count since I don’t watch the news. Not that I’m dumb or anything, or don’t care what’s going on—”
    “You just don’t have time because you’re working.” She was always working. “Except you tried to quit this morning.”
    “I didn’t try to quit.”
    “Really? Your boss called me to tell me I was getting a new maid—”
    “It’s for the best.”
    “Don’t decide what is best for me,” I replied, pulling my leg away from her.
    She glared. “I wasn’t. I was deciding what was best for me. Contrary to what your ego may tell you, Mr. Emerson, the world does not revolve around you.”
    “So it’s a no to the marriage then?”
    She threw her hands up. “Yes! Do you know how crazy you sound? You don’t even know me and you are in love with…I’m not marrying a stranger for money. You and your cousin both think you can buy people with money. Maybe you can, but you can’t buy me.”
    She annoyed the hell out of me.
    “You’re an idiot,” I said when she got up to leave.
    “What?” She spun back to me.
    Standing up, I fixed my tie. “You are an idiot. You think working hard is the secret to making it? How do you think half of these people got to the point where they spend three hundred dollars on a plate of pasta? Maybe once upon a time, hard work was the reason. Maybe there is one out of a few thousand people who succeeds that way now. Some people are born lucky and into wealth. Some people are born extremely intelligent or athletic. But for the