My lip juts out before I suck it back in between my teeth. Pouting will not help, but this situation is what makes me act wild.
It’s almost a rejection. A close cousin to it.
Adam escorts me to his door. By the time we reach it, I’ve replaced my armor. If I have to be the one to keep things professional around here, then I will.
Back straightening, I’m resolved. If he wants another kiss, any more touching, any more flirting or playing, he’ll have to take me out on a proper date.
I’m out of his door when he catches my elbow.
“Look at me, princess.”
Pausing long enough to make my point, I do, and he examines me for a few beats.
“Behave.”
I lift my chin, morphed back into the professional I was when I came to the Lodge for this job on day one.
My response is overly polite and bright when I say, “Of course.”
Adam’s brows go up, catching the change in me, but his confidence doesn’t falter one bit.
Challenge accepted.
13
GABE
Drew is dressed to leave when she returns, her coat zipped up tight, and her hat and gloves on. My heart seizes a little. “Done for the day?”
“Yup. I don’t need to be here to do my job today, so I’m going home. And since I’m not an employee, I can do that.”
She sounds off. Formal. What the fuck happened between her and Adam? I will wring his fucking neck if he’s hurt her.
I signal for one of my shift leaders to come take my place up front.
I’ve been training him on some admin and paperwork tasks to give him experience, but I’m out from behind the counter with my coat and keys in a matter of seconds. “I’ll drive you.”
Drew doesn’t wait for me, but she does let me steer her into my 4x4. The urge to buckle her in myself is strong, but I tamp it down. She’s not a child. That much has been made more than clear to me since she’s come back.
Since she’s stoked this kind of heat inside me that I didn’t know existed. That I didn’t know she could breathe into me by her mere proximity. It ramps up my protective instincts to the extreme. It makes my reactions to her more than untrustworthy.
She’s silent, and I’m wringing the steering wheel with my hands the entire way home.
Adam retrieved her, and now she’s gone stoney. That’s not how she usually reacts to him. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
It has my grip tightening. I warned him.
I knew he would do something to fuck this up, and she’d have to deal with the consequences. The fall out. It’s all the men around her seem to do: place more problems on her plate.
The want to tear into something takes over me, and it’s difficult to keep those feelings tamped down.
When we get to the house, I lure her into mine instead of hers. “Let me make you some hot chocolate.”
She laughs softly. “What is it with you two and offering me cocoa?”
Her response eases some of that overwhelming anger, dropping it to a simmer.
