“What are you glaring at? Here?” She pushed the folder she carried into my gut with attitude and turned to flounce away. I don’t know what made me do it; in fact, I wasn’t thinking at all.
All I know is that fucking attitude, and the way she rolled her eyes at me, set something off inside me that was new to me. I’ve never wanted to murder and fuck the same individual at the same time before. This is a first.
I didn’t realize that I had grabbed her until she swung on me. I sidestepped the blow and caught the offending fist in mine. “Settle your little ass down.” Her eyes did that twitching thing people do when something stops them dead in their tracks, and their brain is trying to play catch-up.
“Now, let’s start this over, shall we? This is a place of business. Everyone who steps through those doors has to maintain a certain level of decorum. Running around looking like the village rat may be all well and good for you and your little sorority sisters when you go slumming, but it’s not suitable here.”
Village rat, my ass! She’s a beautiful mess. Everything about her is perfection, which makes this whole thing even morefucked because I have seen her in full-battle regalia. Makeup, the latest fashionable ensemble, and not a hair out of place, dripping in the best luxury money can buy. Now I’m not sure which of the two I prefer.
The well-coiffed second miss of the Thornton family, or this…whatever the hell she was supposed to be, standing in front of me. And why the fuck does she smell so good? She did this shit on purpose.
How the hell long was I standing here holding her? And her eyes, what is that look? Like a damn fawn or one of those damn kittens, my sister-in-law always has running around the house. Yeah, that’s more like it because those shits have claws, just like this one. And then she blinked, and I saw her lashes, how long they were. What the fuck?
I almost dropped her from my hold because my heart was doing that weird shit again, and it was pissing me off; she was pissing me off. Is this what it feels like to hold her, to be this close to her? Is she trying to fucking kill me or something? It can’t be normal for a person’s heart to beat like this.
I sneered at her, which I knew would annoy her and make that vein in her neck go even crazier. My eyes were fixated on that spot, and my mouth started watering at the thought of what that bit of flesh would taste like between my teeth right when I…
I snapped out of it just before I slid into her in my warped mind. What the hell is going on? There was a weird heat under my palm where it rested on her waist through her top, and the air felt suddenly different, balmy almost. I could hear the thump of my heart plainly in my ears, and the few seconds we stood there like that felt like forever.
All of it went away as soon as I dropped my hand and broke all contact between us, even going so far as to take a few steps back for safety's sake. That light in her eyes changed again, andthis time, the hellion I had grown accustomed to was back in attendance.
Her eyes were all but spitting fire as she spat words out at me through gritted teeth. “Listen, you pedantic shit stain. I can dress any way I like and go anywhere I like in this town. As for rats, you should know what one looks like since you’ve had about fifty years to get acquainted in the mirror.”
Did she just call me old? “You’re still a brat, I see. You haven’t changed much since middle school. Was that the age when you used to keep getting into shit? I see you haven’t outgrown your childish ways; don’t pout; it’s not very becoming.” What the fuck are you doing, Julius?
I have never behaved so deplorably with a member of the opposite sex before in my life. In fact, I would be ashamed of anyone I know doing so. So why was I doing this to her? The look in her eyes this time was one of hurt, and I could’ve kicked my own ass for going too far.
But the truth is, no matter how much I have come to terms with my true feelings, I still don’t want this. I don’t want to lose myself so completely in another person. I can’t give anyone that kind of control over me. Just the thought of it puts fear in me.
My brother is one of the strongest men I know, and yet, he’s like playdough in his wife’s hands, and it’s only gotten worse since they started having kids. He’s completely wrapped up in her, even though he doesn’t see it. Not that I begrudge it, but anything that can make a human being change so drastically without medical alterations is suspect in my book.
Like now, I hurt her with my words, and yet, seeing that look in her eyes was tearing a hole in my gut. “I’m sorry, that was too far. But you get under my skin with your shit, Jessie!” Her eyes widened for a moment at the name. One I have never used before.
She was always Jessica until she started shacking up with some bastard; from then on, it was Jessie-Belle. “Unhand me!”
“What?” I looked down at where she was staring. When the hell did I close the space between us, and how did her hand end up in mine?
You see this? This is the shit that I’m talking about right here. “Accept my apology?” What the fuck!
“What apology? I didn’t hear one. Oh, you mean when you were blaming me for getting under your skin? That was supposed to be an apology? Lame!”
“I shouldn’t have taken a cheap shot at you. That was way below the belt. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.” Now, she was giving me that suspicious look as if I were a foreign object she happened to step on.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, I’m out.” She started to leave, and I felt like something was being taken away from me. There was a sudden emptiness in my gut that I can’t explain, but I’m pretty sure I knew. How the hell did I run from her all this time, only to get snagged the one time I let my guard down?
.
JESSICA
What the hell was that? I couldn’t get back to the safety of my car fast enough, and even though my legs were like Jello and my knees were no longer existent, I pushed myself to get the hell out of there and away from him before I made an ass of myself.
I fumbled with the door handle and hoped that he wasn’t looking down from a window somewhere in the building, even though I was pretty sure his office was on the other side. By the time I sat in the driver’s seat, I’d lost every ounce of strength I had left. What the hell just happened up there?
Even sitting in the parking lot wasn’t far enough away from whatever the hell that was. Thank heaven for no contact key fobs because I probably couldn’t find the slot at this point; as long as I had the key on me, my engine would start, which it did, and for the first time since I had it I was tempted to let the thing self-drive even though I don’t trust it just yet.
I turned the AC on high, and it still wasn’t enough to cool me down. My skin still burned where he touched me, and my breathing was all over the place. I felt jittery and nervous, and my gut was tied up in knots that refused to open no matter what I tried.
I made it back to the house in one piece and hightailed it to my room to hide from any prying eyes. I didn’t need to look in the mirror to know that my face was as red as a sunburn right now. My cheeks have been on fire since I walked into his office, or more like I was dragged in.
