I almost clapped back, but my real rebuttal was sitting outside waiting on me, leaning on a candy red Range Rover. When I looked through the glass, there he was, designer shades on, long legs crossed at the ankles. Confidence radiated off him. He glanced up, caught my stare, and hit me with a smile. It bordered, cocky. He knew there was no way I could turn him down.
I tried to hide how it affected me, but I couldn’t.
“I’m waiting, Angel,” he called out, loud enough for me and the nosey people behind me to hear. My crew was watching me watch him. This was about to be a whole thing.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, setting the flowers down.
I stepped into the December sun, still feeling every eye on my back. DaVinci pushed off the truck and slid his sunglasses off. His fresh cut made me inhale. The way that tweed coat hung over his hoodie, the chain catching December sun, I had to remind myself we were in a firehouse parking lot with an audience.
“Walk with me,” I said, jerking my chin toward the side of the building where we’d have some privacy. He followed without question, and once we rounded the corner, out of view of the bay windows and the peanut gallery, I turned to face him.
“You really pulled up to my job?” I asked, the edge in my voice softer than it would’ve been inside.
“You asked for a week,” he said. “I gave you a week. Handled what I needed to handle. I told you I was coming back. I keep my word. So yeah, I pulled up.” His gaze moved over my face, steady. “Looks like you’ve been thinking. Say what you need to say.”
“I keep telling you that I’m not thinking about you.”
“Yeah, I keep hearing you say that yet…here we are. Space camp is over with, baby girl.” He grinned.
“Corny.” I laughed, even while I rolled my eyes.
“I might be, but you saw the news. That chapter’s closed.” He took a step closer. “And I realized something while I stayed away.”
“What’s that?”
“I owe you an apology. I never meant for that shit to feel like I was hunting you or preying on you. My approach, the way I moved around you, the assumptions that you’d just go with it, that was foul. I can say that now. I was wrong.”
It landed where I needed it to, but I wasn’t letting him off so easily.
“That’s the part I couldn’t get past,” I admitted. “You moved like you had the right to watch me, follow me, move pieces around me, and then get mad when I called it what it looked like...Stalking.”
“Stop that shit, Lo.” He sucked his teeth, arms crossing as if I’d slapped him. “That’s not the same, and you know it. I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I’d never hurt you.”
“I’m not some helpless woman in distress, Vin,” I said quietly. “You know what I do for a living.”
“I know.” He cut me off, voice dropping lower. “I know you don’t need saving. That’s not what this is about.”
“Then what is it about?”
“I was raised to watch the people I care about. I walk into a room, I’m checking exits, I’m clocking who stares too long, who moves funny. I fix what I can before it blows up. That’s how I’m wired. I just didn’t stop to ask if you wanted that from me yet.”
“And I get that, but—”
He reached out and pinched my chin softly, the touch careful and controlled. My eyes closed on instinct before I snapped them open. What was I doing?
“But I went too far,” he said. “I know. It was some stalker shit, even if my intentions were good.” He met my eyes. “I let my ego do the moving. It won’t happen again.”
I didn't say anything. Couldn't. Because the man standing in front of me had just owned his mistake without making excuses, I could no longer hold onto my anger.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, backing up a step. “Don’t move.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said. I didn’t even care if he was running game on me. He was smooth as hell with it.
Inside, my body was buzzing. I ignored the sideways looks and headed straight to my locker. My hands were shaking a little as I grabbed the gift bag with the four paperbacks wrapped in simple brown paper and twine. I wasn’t doing all the Hallmark movie glitter and bows. This was enough.
“Lieutenant got a man?” I heard somebody whisper.
“That’s DaVinci Bryns,” someone else hissed.
