Build And Break novel Chapter 23

"And I'm guessing the homeless were the vandals then." Angela was getting the whole picture.

"Of course they were. Damn stupid people are halting still my new project and ruined my property." Steven spit out the words vehemently. "Have they any idea who I am and what I can do to them?"

"What can you do to them? What could you take away from them? You just took the one thing they had: a shelter above their head. I say you deserve what they've done to you." Angela's arms crossed under her breasts. Her eyebrows rose, chastising him.

Her words had somewhat surprised him. "Come on. It's not like it was the prettiest land around. Nobody even wanted to buy it." Steven argued.

"But the mighty Steven Morris did. Didn't it occur to you why nobody wanted it? It was home to the homeless."

"If they're homeless, they could easily find another place."

"You live in gold. You don't know what it means to be poor and to be hungry." Her brows were now furrowed. She looked... hurt? As if his words were hitting home. Still, she spoke calm. "If it was someone you know who lived there, if it was me, would you have bought it?"

"That's different." Steven made to stand up. Angela stopped him with a hand over the nail marks she etched on his skin. She wasn't going to let him escape that debate.

"When you came for me, you said you'd evict everyone from where I lived. Would you have kept your word if I didn't come here with you?"

"You're not one of them, Angie." Steven murmured.

"Maybe not anymore. I had been living the poor life. Not the poorest but I did. I lived it with Tony and Grace and Jimmy. They still are. You're looking at me now like you don't believe this, you don't want to imagine that life but I did live it. So what's the difference between me and them now? Because I had been born in a rich family, because I had been married to the most powerful man in town? For four years, I was a poor woman. I made do with what I had. I raised a son with what I had. If I were one of those people you took their home, I would have done the same. I would have thrown a dozen buckets of paint at your office, on that money machine you build on my home and I wouldn't feel the slightest remorse."

"For once in your life just think about what is right not what's best for you."

"You always did have a way with words, Angie."

Angela shrugged lightly at him. A small smile formed in the corner of her lips. She knew she just might have won against the mighty Steven Morris. During their marriage, she always managed to. Lately not much. Did that mean that Steven was warming up to her, that she had the power to sway him again?

She was so lost in her own mind, she didn't realize Steven had pushed her back on the sofa with just a light push on her shoulders until his knees pushed her legs open to make way for his body between them. Instinctively Angela's hands flew to his chest exposed under his shirt. The spark she felt at the touch was like thunder. Potent and hot.

"You still have the power over me, don't you." In one movement, he peeled off his shirt. "And I always had the power over you." His lips found her neck, trailed down her collar bone. Her eyes drifted shut in an instant without any approval from her body or brain. "And it seems I still do."