“Don’t tel me to shut up,” I whispered.
That’s when he gave me one of his grins and I knew I was right. Everything was going to be fine. Then he kissed me, slow, sweet, long, like we had al day and I knew everything was really fine.
When he was done, there were no clouds in the sky.
None at al . Just sunshine.
“I’m sorry about last night,” I said quietly, because I had to.
“You need to talk to Luke,” he told me.
I nodded. He was right, I needed to talk to Luke. I didn’t want to but I sure as hel needed to.
“Are you two gonna be okay?” I asked.
“He keeps his distance, yeah. He keeps at this game, no.”
Hmm.
That didn’t sound good. That sounded like I was Yoko Ono to the Nightingale Investigation Team’s Beatles. I didn’t want to be the woman who fucked up the band.
“I’l talk to him,” I said then went for another, much safer topic (at least I thought it was safer, but I was very, very wrong). “How long have you been here?”
“About an hour. The minute Bobby walked in, I took off.”
“Why didn’t you wake me when you got here?” I asked.
“I was pissed. I needed to calm down before I talked to you.”
“You could calm down lying naked in bed with me?” I queried in disbelief.
“Lots of ways to work through anger, Jules, and I’m learnin’ that I like the way you work through it a lot.” I blinked at him. Then I remembered the grin I thought I saw before he slid inside me.
“You knew we were going to have sex,” I breathed as the realization hit me I caught the grin this time, ful -on.
My body tensed and my blood started pumping through my veins. “How could you know we were going to have sex? We were broken up!” I shouted, trying to pul away but his arms got tight and his brows drew together.
“We weren’t broken up. I was givin’ you time to get your head sorted,” he said.
Um.
What?
“We were broken up,” I repeated.
“We weren’t,” he repeated right back at me.
“We most certainly were,” I snapped.
“Jules, for fuck’s sake, you don’t kiss a woman that you’ve broken up with good-bye.”
This gave me pause for reflection because it made sense.
Stil .
Before I could say anything, he went on. “At the cabin, we made up.”
“At the cabin, we were saying good-bye.”
He stared at me for a beat then his brows unknitted and he started laughing.
Laughing!
I yanked back and gained some space. He yanked me forward and took it away.
“This isn’t funny, Crowe,” I snapped.
“You think you fuck four times to say good-bye?” he asked through laughter.
This gave me pause for reflection too because I had to admit, it sounded pretty ridiculous.
I didn’t tel him that.
I tried a different tactic. “Why didn’t you cal me if we were stil together?”
“Hard to give you space and cal you.”
Then something else hit me and my eyes narrowed. “You thought I’d let Luke kiss me when you and I were together?”
“You let Luke kiss you and put his hands up your shirt,” Vance corrected me.
“Whatever,” I said.
His eyes flashed. “Not whatever.”
“I thought we were broken up.” Now my voice was louder.
“I know that now. I thought you were workin’ through shit, experimenting.”
Oh my God.
He did not just say that.
“Experimenting?” My voice was no longer loud, it was quiet, soft and seriously pissed off.
I’d just gone through al sorts of hel , nearly got emotional y chewed to shit by my Rottweiler and through al that, he thought we were stil together and he was just giving me space. Not only that, he thought I was the kind of woman who’d “experiment” with another guy.
I took a deep breath to calm myself.
Then…
I lost my mind.
I pul ed out of his arms and sat up, wrapping the sheet around me and twisting toward him. “I’m not fifteen years old, Vance, experimenting with every hot guy who comes along! Why didn’t you tel me you were giving me space?” He came up after me and twisted to face me. “Calm down, Jules,” he said.
“Fuck calm and answer me.”
“Jules –”
I forgot I demanded an answer and kept ranting, so in a snit that I forgot to think about what I said. “I’ve been freaking out for three days. I thought I’d broken up with you and you’d let me. I thought we were over and you weren’t going to try and get me back. Everyone thinks it!” I yel ed.
His arms came around me, pul ed me to him and I pul ed back. We tussled. This of course ended with me flat on my back, head on the pil ows and Vance’s body pinning mine to the bed.
“Get off me,” I shouted in his face.
“Quiet, Jules, and listen to me.”
“I don’t want to listen to you,” I snapped.
His eyes flashed, his face changed and his hands went to either side of my head and he held my face to look at him.