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Now—though—he was about to enter into further insanity.
In the form of one Raven Montergo.
Beautiful, smart, difficult. Barbed wire and concrete locking up every single part of her that was soft and vulnerable—at least with him.
All while sleeping in his guest room.
Sighing, he reached up, hit the button on the remote clipped to his visor, sent the garage door sliding down, then got out of his car, preparing for the chaos.
For the barbed wire.
Because beautiful, smart, and difficult was normally his type, but Raven…
Hewantedto like her. Hell, he just wanted to get along with her because his family liked her. But…oil and water and—
Barrier upon barrier upon barrier.
For some reason, the parts of her she gave to his siblings, to her friends, even to his parents were completely different from what she gave him (which was attitude to the nth fucking degree). That normally wouldn’t bother him. He didn’t need everyone to like him, and anyway, attitude and spine were characteristics he appreciated—because no real man wanted to fuck a limp dishtowel. The problem was that Raven…well, he didn’t want to think she was a bitch, but it was hard not to when she constantly took things as far as she did.
Especially when the contention between them had begun at work.
Usually, it was the male doctors who gave him shit or took an instant dislike to him because he was a “man” doing a “woman’s job.” (Yes, he was mentally making air quotes right then.)
And look, he didn’t mind getting shit—he was one of five boys, which meant he had a thick skin and could dish it out plenty in return. But he also knew his brothers were proud of him. His friends and parents were too. So, while the shit-giving happened frequently, it was tempered with love, with pride.
AndConnor shoveled it back with equal opportunity.
All of which meant he could put up with getting shit on (figuratively and literally sometimes, since being a nurse was a messy job). He could deal with doctors—and that even included Raven—being general pains in the ass.
It was just that Raven in particular…had taken it to the extreme.
She’d broken the mold.
Go her.
Disdain from day one. Sharp orders and tone. Strictly business, even when their lives crossed outside of work.
That was all fine—or not fine, but he’d deal.
She didn’t owe him any amount of familiarity.
Unfortunately, now she was convalescing in his guest room while he waited on her hand and foot and dressed her wounds, and generally made sure she didn’t die. For reasons he didn’t even understand himself. It wasn’t like hehadto—he didn’thaveto open his house, his guest room. He could have held strong against his mom’s most puppy eyes of puppy eyes—
Okay, probably not.
But he could have dropped Raven off at the hotel one of the hundred times she bitched and moaned about getting away from him over the last two weeks.
That he hadn’t…
“Fucking stupid,” he muttered, grabbing his cell, and getting out of his car, knowing that the tangle of the feelings in his gut went deeper than being frustrated by her prickly nature, by the fact that she gave everyone but him the real Raven. Knowing it was centered not just in fire and ash and saving her from flames, but because of what he’d felt deep inside the first time he’d seen her smile.
None of that mattered.
Soon enough she would be gone, and soon enough they’d be able to go back to licking their wounds in their respective corners.
There.Good.
Game plan.
