Page 27 of Against The Boards

“I don’t need your jacket!” she snapped.

I held up my hands but didn’t remove my jacket from her shoulders. She was ready to pounce again, but then the car arrived, so we got inside and had a very tense ride back to the condo. She shoved the jacket into my face when she got out of the car. I let her storm off and leisurely made my way back up to the condo. I didn’t think she was mad at me but about the whole situation. When I keyed into the condo, she was pouring two shots of vodka at the kitchen island.

“Come on, take this shot with me,” she said. She gave me a pleading look I couldn’t say no to. Her bright red lips were all pouty, and I felt my dick twitch behind my zipper.

I threw my jacket on the back of the armchair and toed off my shoes. When she bent over to grab her shot glass, I saw the cherry blossom tattoo on her right shoulder blade and a new tattoo of a white flower on her left shoulder blade. I wanted to trace the lines of her tattoos with my tongue and kiss them slowly until she begged me to fuck her. I shouldn’t have been having thoughts like that about her, though. I was already skating on thin ice here.

I was cautious when I walked over and took the shot glass out of her hand. We clinked glasses, and I winced as the alcohol burned my throat.

“You want to talk about it?” I asked carefully.

She groaned. “First, I hate when they order dinner for me. Second, he spent the whole date goading me for information on Tristan. He knew who I was when he bought me that drink. What a fucking fuckety fuck!” I tried not to laugh at her cursing, but she noticed and slapped my shoulder. “Don’t laugh about it!”

“I’m sorry. I’m not laughing at you, just your colorful language.”

She ran a hand down her throat, and my gaze dropped to her ample cleavage. God, this woman was a goddess. Was it wrong of me to fantasize about running my hands and my mouth all over her curvy body?

I realized I was staring when she placed her hands on her hips and glared up at me.

“We gonna talk about that kiss? What kind of person kisses a girl like that and then fucks off for a couple of days?” she seethed.

I exhaled. “I was trying to not get murdered. Sorry!”

She growled and muttered another insult that I couldn’t hear.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I went to see my family,” I tried to explain.

She sighed and gave me an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. I’m making this about me.”

My eyebrow shot up in surprise. “Holy shit. Mark this day. Roxanne Desjardins has apologized to me, Michael Bennett, for snapping at me for no reason!”

She gave me the finger. “Shut up! I’m just…” She trailed off and didn’t look me in the eye as she searched for the right word. “Frustrated.”

“Frustrated how?”

She gave me a pained look. “Horny.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway, why did you kiss me that night? You hate me!”

I placed my hands against the kitchen island behind her, boxing her in and staring down at her. “We need to talk about you thinking I hate you.”

“You do!” she snarled.

I gritted my teeth. This woman and her constant need to argue was grating on my last nerve. As much as she infuriated me, I’d never said that I hated her. Sure she got under my skin, and she was combative as hell, but hate was a strong word. The same couldn’t be said for her, though; I thought she lived to hate me.

“I don’t hate you. You make me so goddamn frustrated, you infuriating woman.”

“I’m infuriating? Are you for real?”

“You want to know why I kissed you?” I growled at her.

“Yes! I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know. I swear, you’re the most insufferable man I’ve ever met!”

I leaned into her, closing her in against me so she couldn’t escape. She looked up at me with wild eyes that looked equal parts pissed off and horny. That was sure interesting to my lizard brain right about now.

“I kissed you that night because you were annoying me, and it shut you up.”