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“It is not simple at all.”
“Then explain it to me.”
“No.”
I let out a frustrated groan. “I’m leaving. I’ve wasted too much time waiting for Dad. He’s out there somewhere and he needs me.” I try to move, but Gabriel takes a step forward and blocks my path. “Move,” I command.
“No.”
“I’m starting to think that’s the only thing you know how to say.”
“You will remain here until Chet retrieves you. It is for your own safety.”
“What’s stopping me from packing up and walking straight out the front door?”
“Try it and find out.”
I glare up at him, growing more and more irritated at the fact that he’s still as expressionless and cold as stone. Was our almost kiss three nights ago a part of a fever dream? There’s no way that the man standing before me and the one who pinned me against the kitchen counter are the same person.
I step to my right. He blocks me.
I step to my left. He blocks me again.
I prepare to shove right past him, but then I catch a glimpse of something. An amused, subtle glint in his dark eyes. And that’s when I come to a sudden realization.
“Is this a game to you?” I murmur, my heart racing in my chest.
“I am far too old to play games,” is his low reply.
The way he looks at me shouldn’t excite me as much as it does. The butterflies in my stomach flutter, a familiar heat pooling in my core. I don’t know how much more of this hot and cold treatment I can take.
With one final breath, I make a break for it.
I shove past him and sprint back to my room. If I’m fast enough, I can gather what little gear I have, vault over the bed, duck Gabriel like a running back, and throw myself down the stairs and out the front door before he even knows what’s happened.
Just as I manage to get my hands on the burner phone at my bedside table, Gabriel is right behind me. I didn’t even hear him coming, his nimble swiftness a complete shock for someone his size.
“Out of my way,” I grumble, but my command falls on deaf ears.
I try to circle around him, but all it takes is for Gabriel to shove me back with one hand. The back of my knees hit the mattress, instinctively forcing me to sit.
I try again.
“Let me go!”
This time I manage to get around him… only for Gabriel to pick me up and throw me over his shoulder. I gasp, indignant and mortified at how easy this is for him. He unceremoniously deposits me back on the bed like I’m nothing more than a sack of coal.
I immediately hop off the bed again only for Gabriel to grab me by the waist, use my momentum to spin us around, and then release me so I fall face-first into the mattress.
I slam my fist against the sheets. “For fuck’s sake!” I roar, spinning around again to make a third attempt.
This time when he throws me, he climbs on top and pins my body beneath his. He grasps my wrists and keeps them flattened to the sheets above my head, our faces inches from each other. I attempt to fight back, to twist free, but the sexy French asshole is too strong and heavy for me to make any real progress. I’ve got fight in me, but not the body mass to back it up, and my ribs have started to throb.
“Are you quite done?” he asks.
I manage to rip my hand free and take a swing. He dodges the blow with an amused chuckle before recapturing my hand.
“Feisty little bird, aren’t you?” he muses.
