Adrian's expression stiffened, a hint of irritation creeping into his voice. "Serena?"
"Adrian."
Her voice was ice-cold, devoid of any emotion. "Stop saying my name like that. It's disgusting."
She scoffed, the ridicule in her eyes deepening. "Where exactly do you get the confidence to think I'd pick up the trash I already threw away?"
Adrian froze instantly, staring at her in sheer disbelief.
He gritted his teeth to keep his temper in check, his expression clouding with suppressed rage. "Look, I know you're bitter, but I've already apologized. I don't even care that you've been messing around with other men lately. I'm willing to give you all my love and promise you a place in the Cole family. What more could you possibly want?"
"You chased me for four years. You should know my personality by now. I don't have much patience!"
His tone carried a veiled threat.
Serena burst out laughing.
The radiant smile made her flawless face look even more intoxicatingly beautiful.
Like a dark, alluring siren bathed in the moonlight.
It utterly blinded Adrian.
But the words slipping past her lips were bone-chillingly cynical. "You don't actually think your love and a spot in the Cole family mean anything to me, do you?"
"Because to me," her gaze drifted, landing slowly on his left arm as she let out a scoff, "you're completely worthless."
It was just a casual, lazy glance.
Yet her frigid, overbearing aura made his chest violently tighten.
When he realized exactly where she was looking.
A memory struck him, and the color drained completely from his face.
His hand flew up instinctively to cover his left arm.
His left arm...
The spot where he had been forcibly branded with the word 'Loser' after failing the Overdrive challenge against her at the Apex Horizon Speedway!
A permanent mark of absolute disgrace.
The crushing humiliation of that day came flooding back.
How dare she insult him to his face!
His handsome features twisted with rage. Beneath his clothes, his left arm burned with phantom pain.
But then he remembered who she really was.
He forced down the seething emotions.
She had chased him for four years, pining after him the entire time. There was no
way she could just fall out of love so easily.
She was just playing hard to get!
"Serena!" He ground his teeth, suppressing his temper as he forced a smile. "What we had wasn't fake know you still care about me You don't have to put up these walls Just give me a chance to make it up toyou, okay?"
"Make it up to me?" Serena arched an eyebrow, her smile dripping with sarcasm as
she took a step forward on her long, slender legs.
Although she was shorter than him, her overwhelming presence made his breath catch in his throat.
Especially when he met those cold, mocking eyes. His pulse hammered in his temples and a strong sense of foreboding washed over him.
She gave him a dazzling smile. "Then drop to the dirt and earn it."
Wham!
Before Adrian could even register what was happening.
A flash of a long, gorgeous leg swung through the moonlight right in front of his eyes.
An agonizing pain exploded in his stomach.
The sheer agony wiped the arrogant smirk off his face, twisting his features into a grotesque grimace.
He collapsed heavily to the ground, curling in on himself as he clutched his stomach in misery.