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“I can’t sleep here.”
“Why not?” he asked curiously, like he really didn’t understand why sharing a bed with him wrapped around me was a horrible idea. “And why are you covering your mouth like that?”
“Because I have Frankenstein breath,” I admitted without a care, suddenly remembering clearly why I got so drunk the night before in the first place. “And I can’t sleep here because I hate you,” I finished with a glare.
The stupid jerk’s grin grew even bigger. “You don’t hate me.”
Okay, that pissed me off so I uncovered my mouth, hoping my breath would make him pass out. “Yes, I do.”
“No, you don’t. Youwantto, but I make it too hard.”
My body froze as his words replayed in my achy head. I’d thought thatexactsame statement countless times since last night. It was as if he’d read my mind.
“Get off me,” I grunted as I shoved at him. It was like trying to shove at a brick wall.
“Navie…”
“I said get off!” I seethed. Then I blew in his face. It wasn’t the most mature thing in the world—to be honest, it was quite disgusting—but Rowan had a gift for bringing out the worst in me.
“Oh, dear Lord,” he choked as he jerked away. “That’s awful.” I took advantage of the distraction and hurried to scoot away. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough.
“Let go, Rowan!” I struggled through the pain radiating in my head. The need to escape was much stronger.
“Will you just listen?” he asked in exasperation as he pinned my back to the bed, hovering over me. I opened my mouth to give him another waft of awful, but his hand clamped over it, foiling my plan. “Please, Navie.”
“Mmph mmmhmm phmmm phummfm,” I mumbled against his palm.
“If I move my hand, you promise not to breathe on me?”
I glared.
“Ah, fuck it.” He sighed, moving his hand anyway. “What did you say?”
“I said I don’t want to hear your explanation,” I spit out, masking the hurt in my chest with anger so he wouldn’t know how deeply it had stung to see him with that woman.
“I wasn’t going to explain. I wasn’t going to make excuses. I just want to apologize.”
I had no idea how to respond to that. All I could do was lie there silently as I stared up into his icy gaze, trying not to let my emotions sweep me away.
“I’m sorry,” he said in a hushed voice.
“For what?” I croaked, needing to hear him admit to exactly what he’d done.
“For yesterday.” That was a little too vague for my liking. I was about to say as much, but he continued. “I was an asshole. I wanted to make you jealous, and I used that photographer to try and do it.”
If I hadn’t been lying down—well, pinned down—you could have knocked me over with a feather. I never thought Rowan Locklaine would apologize for his bad behavior. It went against everything I’d thought of him when we first started working together. But there was the problem. I saw different sides to the man I’d started off hating the longer I was around him. There were layers to Rowan that I never expected. It was those sides that made it impossiblenotto like him as I came to know him. It was those sides that had me scared to death, because I was feeling so much more for him than I should, than was safe. I was going to get hurt; there was no doubt about it, no matter how hard I fought to avoid it.
And I was so tired of being hurt. It sometimes felt like my entire life was just one painful thing after another. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle anything else. I was so much stronger than I used to be, but that broken, sad girl still lay deep beneath my surface. She was always with me, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“Youwantedto hurt me?” I asked against the lump forming in my throat.
“No! God, Navie, I’m so damn sorry. It was so fucking stupid. I thought if I used her to make you jealous, you’d get…I don’t know, territorial or something.”
“So, you wanted me to get pissed off and, what? Pee on you like a dog or something? Good Lord, Rowan. Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound right now?”
“The moment you walked out the door, I knew I’d fucked up royally. I never had any interest in her—”
I didn’t want to let myself believe him. It felt too much like throwing in the towel. “You really expect me to believe you didn’t want to sleep with her? I’m not blind. I saw how gorgeous she was.”
