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Gently, he pressed on all my fingers as if testing them, for what I didn’t know. When he touched my pinky, I sank my teeth into my lower lip and grunted.
A light knock on the door had him on his feet at a speed a man of his size shouldn’t be capable of. When he was across the room and out of my space, I took my first full breath since he’d arrived.
He grabbed the ice and shoved the door closed, tossing the bucket on the coffee table, so that he only held the bag of ice. He moved with a confidence most men didn’t have. But he’d always been that way, even thirteen years ago when we’d first met.
Now it was different.
More potent.
Maybe age had made him that way. Or life.
He wasn’t like so many of the other men I encountered. I couldn’t run over Garrett Calhoun.
He turned up his palm and situated my hand on top of it on his thigh.
I balled my fist when he settled the bag of ice on my wounded hand.Cold. Cold. Cold.
I shoved down how miserable I was and put on a brave face.
“Your dad do that to you?”
I gaped at the question. “No. Why would you think that?”
“I’ve seen hands slammed in doors. That ain’t it.” He flicked his chin toward me. “You used to talk about what an ass he was to you and your brothers. Seemed like a logical choice.”
He remembered? I barely did. When we’d been together, I hadn’t wanted to taint our time with all the stress my father put on me. Back then, he’d been pressuring me about the company. About what he wanted me to do.
I guess I’d unloaded that on Cal more than I thought. Maybe because at one point, more than a decade ago, I’d thought I meant more to him. I’d thought we were more.
“He’s never physically hurt me.”
I clamped my mouth closed. That wasn’t his business. He didn’t get to know personal things about me anymore. My body. That was all he had access to.
Which apparently included my injured hand.
“I wanna know who did.”
A streak of fear skittered down my spine. Cal . . . he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. He would snap Alex Davenport in half with one hand.
And while I certainly had no interest in protecting Alex, I saw no point in divulging unnecessary information to Cal. This was a one-off. He seemed to care, but he had a long time ago too.
I’d fallen for it then. I wasn’t going to now.
“This has been on long enough.”
He stopped me before I could remove the ice bag. “Don’t think so.”
I closed my eyes and willed patience to come to me. I was so tired of men telling me what to do. My father. My brothers. Alex. Garrett—no,Cal.
“Just go.” My words had no fire. They were flat and tired. Just like me.
“Can’t do that.”
“Sure you can. It’s easy. You get up, open the door, and walk out.” I glared at him. “You’re very good at that.”
You just couldn’t keep your mouth shut, could you?I wanted him to think I’d forgotten about what he’d done to me. Instead, I’d just proved I’d never let it go.
His nostrils flared, but he made no move. Instead, we sat in stony silence, glaring at one another.
