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She turned at his low, dangerous voice. “You think that I’d even…” Pride and astonishment clogging her ability to form a sentence. “After—”
“After what, babe? This was just fucking. I don’t have any hold on you.”
Stunned, she got her voice back. “Congratulations on the upgrade. You’re a fucking asshole. That fits better.” She opened the door, then slammed it behind her.
FIVE
“It’s prettyimpressive to get laid and have the woman slam the door in your face within the same hour.”
“Fuck off, Kain.”
“If you don’t want me to comment, then don’t have sex in my house. Especially loud sex I can hear over my headphones.”
Shane’s grip tightened on his dress shirt. He hadn’t been able to put it on after she’d worn it. Just a few minutes against her skin, and it smelled like her. Apples and sex. Two things that shouldn’t go together, but as usual the dichotomy was what made him sit up and pay attention.
He knew the difference between losing himself in sex and losing himself in a woman. Twice in the same day was more than scratching an itch. Twice with the same woman who left him wrecked and lashing out at her, that was the capper.
He balled up his shirt.
“Shane, this doesn’t have to be a cluster fuck. Just let me help you guys get to New York. It’s the least I can do.”
Shane looked up at his friend. Kain was one of the few people he actually had to look up at. Even with all the gargantuan guys he’d worked with on construction sites over the years, no one was quite as holy-fuck-huge as Kain. “I think you’ve done enough.”
Kain’s eyes flattened.
Shane held up a hand. “No, not like that. I appreciate you taking over our employees and making sure the jobs get done. I just can’t let you bail me out of this too.”
Kain dipped his hands into his pockets. “It’s just money.”
“It’s just your money.”
“And I decide how I want to use it.”
Shane held out his hand. “I know it, but this I need to do alone.” It was more than time for him to stand on his own. Avery Furniture had started with a backup. He didn’t want Larry’s name and influence involved, but he hadn’t taken the plunge without the safety net of Justice Construction. He needed to know he could do this by himself.
The training wheels had to go into the garage sometime.
Kain grasped his forearm, and Shane did the same before breaking the contact.
“You know I’ll do anything you need,” Kain said.
“Good, because I need you to babysit Kendall.”
Kain’s brow rose. “I’m pretty sure she’s a grown-up. The gymnastics upstairs certainly settled that discussion.”
Shane scratched along the few days’ growth of beard at his neck. “I’d rather not talk about that.”
“I got it. You’re interested in her. I didn’t really need a sound track as proof.”
The moment Kendall had come into that room, there had been nothing on his mind but her. Kain might be a charming son of a bitch, but he was loyal beyond definition. As young as his best friend was, there was an old-world shadow that rode behind him. Honor was important, and he’d never poach.
“I don’t know what‘s going on with Kendall. I have to focus on the future, not getting her naked. And that’s why I need a few days away from her.”
He didn’t trust himself not to get wrapped up in her. The minute he got near her, there was a hunger that precluded all sense. Attraction he understood, but not this gnawing hunger to strip back all her defenses and take everything he could from her.
The numbness he’d felt since Larry had his heart attack two weeks before and through the hospital visits and finally his death—all that faded the moment he got his hands on her. The fact that it came back, double time, made her more addiction than cure.
He needed to know he could walk away.
