He took a step closer, lowering his voice to that seductive timbre I’d heard him use a million times on the women he picked up at the bar. “Of course. I’ve actually imagined a lot of different things when it comes to you. Like what it might be like to kiss you.”
My features fell into an intense frown, and I pushed away the hand he’d lifted to tuck a lock of hair behind my ear. “Davis, that’s incredibly inappropriate,” I snapped. At my tone, the fur along Ziggy’s spine stood up and he emitted a low, menacing growl. “Not only because I’m your boss, but because you know I have a boyfriend.”
The expression on his face was one I’d never seen him wear before; it was downright frightening.
“You know, I’ve waited and waited and fuckingwaitedfor you to notice me, to catch on to how I feel about you. I kept telling myself that one day, you’d realize I was who you were meant to be with, that I could actually make you happy, and the wait would all be worth it once I had you.” My heart fell out of my chest and my hands began to tremble as he continued barking at me. “But instead of you seeing what was right in front of you, what did you do? You hooked up with that fucking man whore who wouldn’t have a goddamn clue how to treat a woman if his life depended on it!”
I jerked back at the force of his words, my hips slamming into the lip of the counter. “Davis...” My voice quivered. “You’ve been hooking up with women left and right?—”
“And who the fuck did they look like?” he shot back, his face growing redder as his voice got higher. Ziggy’s lips curled back from his teeth in a vicious snarl he’d never made before. “Every single bitch I took home was a placeholder for you. They all looked like you so I could close my eyes and imagine it was you I was sinking into.”
Oh god.In that moment, everything suddenly clicked into place. I reached back, gripping the edge of the counter to keep myself steady as my knees began to quake, fear gripping hold of my chest and squeezing my heart. “It was you, wasn’t it?” My voice was a barely-there whisper. “You’re the one who’s been leaving the notes and flowers. You vandalized my car.”
“Because you started whoring yourself out to that motherfucker! And now I’m done waiting. It’s my fucking turn.”
He lunged for me, and I reacted purely on instinct. Grabbing the handle of the frying pan that had been on the drying rack right behind me, I swung out with all my might, hitting him upside the head right as Ziggy pounced and clamped down onhis leg. Davis stumbled on a pained shout, and I didn’t waste the chance I’d been given, whirling around on my rubber boots, I took off at full speed, sprinting toward the front door. I slammed my hand against the panic button on the alarm panel as Davis bellowed my name, sounding like something straight out of a scary movie.
Then I ran out of the house like my life depended on it. Because my gut was screaming at me that it did.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Raylan
The sun was bright and the temperature outside was mild. It truly was a beautiful day, only made better by the fact that the lodge guests I’d taken out today didn’t make me want to strangle anyone. In fact, they were all downright pleasant.
I’d just walked Zephyr back into the barn, having returned from a trail ride, when Zach came cantering up on the back of his horse, Roam. It had taken him several days to fully come around to the idea of me and his sister together, but I’d been putting in the effort to prove to him how serious I was about Lennix, and that seemed to be enough to finally win him over.
“Hey, any drama with the guests today?”
I tied Zephyr’s reins to the hitching post and looked back at my oldest friend as he dismounted and did the same. “Surprisingly not. Seems like the groups we’ve got here already learned about consideration and manners. So far the day’s been downright pleasant.”
He chuckled good naturedly. “Glad to hear it, man. Listen, I came by because Rae wanted me to invite you and Lenni over for dinner tomorrow night. She’s pretty insistent on it now that the dust has settled, so if you have some excuse to say no, I’ve been instructed to tell you not to bother. She’s...” He paused, reaching into his front pocket, and pulled out a piece of paper. Unfolding it, he read it word for word. “Ah, here it is. If you say no, I’m supposed to tell you that, while she’d normally respect a couple in the honeymoon phase of their relationship wanting to spend as much time alone together as possible...” He paused again, this time to gag before pushing on. “But that she is currently pregnant and hormonal, and saying no to her would be the equivalent of kicking a whole boxful of puppies.”
I nodded; he was proud of himself for getting his wife’s words right, then stuffed the paper back into his pocket while I barked out a laugh.
“I see the emotional manipulation has already started.”
He gave me a drole look. “Brother, you have no idea. I’m willing to admit I always thought the whole hormone thing was played up, but I was dead wrong. The mood swings she’s dealing with are real, and fucking terrifying. One minute she’ll be crying for reasons she can’t even explain, and the next, she’s biting my head off. Then she feels guilty and starts crying all over again.”
I clapped him on the shoulder in solidarity. “I can’t imagine it’s easy on a body, growing an entire human being like that.”
He nodded in agreement. “It’s not. And I have a newfound respect and appreciation for women who choose to go through it. I’ll tell you now, if it were up to men to procreate, our species would have died off centuries ago.”
I didn’t doubt it. “Look, I’m down for dinner, but...” I trailed off, arching an inquisitive brow, “but I’ve heard stories. Can she even cook?” I appreciated everything she was going through, andI hated the thought of making her cry, but I hated the idea of being locked in the bathroom with food poisoning even more.
Zach laughed in understanding. “She’s gotten better, but I’ll be doing most of the cookin’. Your bowels will be safe.”
Well that was a relief. “Then count us in. I’ll let Lennix know when I get home later.”
There was a flicker of hesitation in his eyes before he pushed it away and nodded. I had to give him props for trying. I was man enough to admit that, if it had been my little sister, and she got herself hooked up with someone like me, I’d have gone ballistic.
“Sounds good. Since Rae can’t drink, I haven’t bothered with it much either. So if you guys want something, you’ll need to bring it yourselves.”
I threw him a salute as my phone started going off in my back pocket. “You got it,” I said as I pulled it out and glanced at the screen, my brow furrowing as I read the alert coming through.
“What is it?” Zach asked, seeing my face.
“It’s the alarm for Lennix’s house.” It felt like a hand had punched into my chest and was squeezing everything in a tight fist. “There’s a panic button on the panel, and it’s been pushed.”
