“Stop,” I hissed under my breath, not caring what his intentions were, at this point, everyone was staring at us, and he was drawing attention to the fact I was wounded.
He gave me space as I pretended everything was fine. I stood, waiting to see if my knee would hold my weight. His jaw was clenched and he wasn’t leaning while he waited. When Fate didn’t lean, it was bad. The less horizontal he was, the worse it was. A happy Fate was at full tilt.
I went to grab my things, but he did it for me. He threw me a look that said “don’t you dare argue.” I shrugged it off, like it wasn’t a big deal, and made my way outside, now with an obvious limp, him maintaining less than a foot distance behind me.
Once we got into the hallway, he pushed open the door to the stairwell that was right near our office entrance. Stairs? I was wrong about him again. He was trying to aggravate me.
I wasn’t going to argue or say I couldn’t, so I limped through the door he held open. The second it closed he shoved me against the wall.
“What are you doing?” His stare sent a chill through me, the flecks of green looking almost gold and ablaze. Last time I’d looked at his eyes, I would’ve sworn they were darker. I tried not to shrink away, not that I could. He had a hand on each shoulder, pinning me to the wall.
“What the hell is your problem?” My voice was a few notches above normal but not quite a scream.
He moved in even further, until my breasts were pressed against the front of his shirt. “When did you hurt your knee?”
“I was running and tripped on a rock.” It was so lame I was embarrassed at my lack of creativity.
“You don’t run.” I could feel his breath fan my cheek as he spoke.
I rolled my eyes. “That must’ve been why I hurt it. It was right after I saw you last. Too bad you ran out of there so quick. You might have been able to warn me.” My cheeks grew hot at what I’d just revealed but hadn’t meant to. I hadn’t even admitted it to myself how bad it had felt when he’d just up and left.
I got it, though. It was Cupid again, or at most a base sexual desire. At least it had been for him. In all honesty, I didn’t know what it was for me.
He his head bent down slightly and he lowered his voice. “I didn’t mean to run out like that. I just had to—”
“Call Cupid? Yes. I know.” I didn’t need any fake excuses. I had enough lies in my life without adding his to the heap. It was what it was. He wouldn’t have done it without Cupid, and I probably would’ve. He didn’t need to know that part, though.
“Then you know it was the iced tea.” He sounded slightly relieved, and it hurt me more than the throbbing knee or the bruised ribs.
It hadn’t been a question, but I answered it anyway. “Yes. It wasn’t a big deal. Let’s not make it into one.” I tried to shrug his hands off my shoulders. “If that’s all you wanted, I need to get going.”
He didn’t budge. “Where?”
For someone who was so relieved to be let off the hook, I couldn’t shake his grip loose. If anything, his hands on my shoulders were even tighter. I wasn’t in the mood to put up with him. I’d given him an easy out; he needed to take it.
“I thought we just established that the other day wasn’t a big deal, so why don’t you back off?” I’d had trouble maintaining eye contact before from embarrassment, but that was quickly fading as my anger rose. My back was against the wall—literally and figuratively—and I was ready to fight my way out.
“We have other matters to discuss.”
Now the real panic started. This went beyond embarrassment. We were heading into lethal territory.
I stared at him, silently asking what had happened to the unspoken truce I thought we’d had. The night at the house, I thought he’d realized. Then at the condo, again, he seemed to know not to ask, even as I let him survey my home. And yet here he was, pushing the issue.
As if in response, he raised his hand and brushed the hair back from the bruise I’d covered with makeup. It was such a gentle gesture that if I didn’t get away from him soon, I’d melt right in place. I forced myself to remember how he’d basically rejected me twice, now. I couldn’t let myself fall apart because of something so small.
“If you don’t get your hands off me, I’m going to kick the shit out of you.” I stared into his eyes; I had my own anger. I was doing the best I could by myself, and I didn’t need additional shit from him. I didn’t need someone messing my head up worse than it already was or walking in and out of my life whenever they felt like it.
“Try.”
It was a low blow, but I brought my knee up. The rage I felt was swallowing me up whole. Given any excuse, it flowed out of me. Having him stalk me and now manhandle me made it explode like a volcano a thousand years past its due date.
He blocked it with his knee and took a step between mine. His hands shifted down to my arms, pinning them to my sides. In that moment, I would’ve torn him apart if I could’ve.
“I can help you.” I was wrong. He wasn’t angry. He was frustrated. I saw the concern there, and it drained everything I had.
I stared at him, wishing I could speak. My body sagged against the wall. I wish you could help. I don’t want to do this alone, but you can’t. But I couldn’t say any of that to him. More than anything, I wanted to collapse into his arms and tell him everything.
He stood in front of me, not budging, our eyes locked in a nonverbal standoff. As we stood there, something started to change. The tension shifted from something combative into a different type of beast. My chest rose and fell a bit quicker as I wet my lips.
He seemed to get closer and closer, until his forearms were resting on the wall behind me, and his body pressed against mine.
“Karma…”
I wouldn’t find out what Fate was going to say, because a buzzing sound came from the purse I’d dropped by my feet. It was the throwaway phone. The work phone wasn’t muted. I’m not sure why vibrate is considered silent when it’s so goddamn loud, sometimes. The thing sounded like it was filling the whole stairwell with noise.
We both stared down at it intensely but for different reasons. My body went rigid again, blood was pounding in my ears as my heart thudded. I had to answer that call. Luke wasn’t the type to wait, and if he had to, either Kitty or I would pay for it later.
It stopped vibrating.
“That wasn’t your work phone.” Fate’s attention had returned to me completely.
“Yes, it was.” How could he possibly know?
“No, it wasn’t. I know the rate of vibration on your work phone.”
Who—even someone supernatural—knew the sound of a different rate of vibration? It was insane but completely believable if you considered this was Fate.
“So what? You’ve got a second phone.”
“Exactly,” he said.
How had that point gone so wrong? I was getting rusty. The stress of the situation was dulling my brain. I used to operate better under high-pressure conditions, like a well-tuned car opening up on the highway. Now I puttered and died, hoping to limp along the shoulder.
Maybe it was the Kitty element. Holding an innocent life in your hands was a whole different type of pressure compared to trying to beat a drug charge for a junkie.
The phone started vibrating again, and my breathing got rougher. If I didn’t answer it this time, there’d be hell to pay.
His eyes moved from my purse to nail me with a condemning stare. “Are you going to talk to me, or should I just answer it and introduce myself?”
“I’m done playing around with you. Let. Me. Go.” I licked my lips. With every burst of vibration, I felt more and more desperate.
“Who’s playing?” His hands slid down again, his grip just beneath my shoulders.
I tried to lift my arms from my side again but couldn’t.
Then his hands were gone.
He took the tiniest step back. “Answer it.”
“No.” I moved to grab my purse but he got to it first and pulled the phone out, while I fought to get it from him.