Tyler follows me and braces a shoulder against the doorframe after I enter the room, his expression severe. “Let me decide if something’s a big deal or not.”
My fingers pause on the top button of my blouse. Part of me is turned on by his words, the manly protector bit. There’s no hesitation. He actually thinks he knows what’s best for me. But I miss gentle Tyler, especially when this alpha side is in my way.
“You mind? I’m trying to change here.”
Tyler’s stare drops to my hands on my shirt and he blinks. He turns around, crossing his arms stiffly. “Don’t try and spin the conversation in a circle, Mira. I don’t have time for it. Interviewing at Blue was a stupid idea. Then you go and stay there for two hours? I want to know why.”
I finish pulling on jeans and a T-shirt, and glare at his back. “What do you mean, you don’t have time for this? You’re jobless. I think you have the time. And why do you want to know? Were you worried about me, Tyler?”
I’m being sarcastic. Obviously. Tyler would never worry about me.
He turns slowly, his face twisted in a grumpy, sardonic smile that is somehow extremely sexy. My mind flashes to memories of that mouth on mine, and I shake my head, rattling it out of my brain.
“Of course I wasn’t worried,” he says. But there’s something faltering in the way he says it. “But I won’t be held accountable if something happens to you. So you need to stop making stupid decisions.”
I hold up my finger. “Did you just call me stupid?”
He taps his thumb on the doorjamb, but offers no apology.
“I don’t need you to look out for me.” I move to walk past him, but he doesn’t budge, and his body takes up the entire doorway.
“You mind?” I say to the smooth biceps peeking from beneath his short-sleeved button-up, blocking my path.
If I wasn’t so pissed, I might be able to admire his muscled arm. But the offending appendage belongs to Tyler, which means I’d like to bite it.
God, he’s frustrating. “Move it,” I screech.
Strong hands grab my shoulders and push me back until the backs of my knees collide with the bed, my butt landing on the mattress. “Not until we have a little talk, Mira.”
A shiver runs down my spine, settling in my lower belly. Tyler sits beside me and I suck in a breath. He’s too close. It’s been a bitch of a day, and I’m weakened.
“What happened at Blue?” His voice is low, gentle.
That voice, the way his presence softens me—they were what made me allow him inside years ago. And it’s dangerous. Look how well that turned out for us.
“Nothing,” I say stubbornly.
A finger settles beneath my chin, turning my face toward a masculine jawline that no longer hints at the boy I once knew. “Tell me.”
Up my gaze goes, drawn to eyes I could never resist, the strength and sincerity behind them as mesmerizing now as they were six years ago.
“I took the job.”
Chapter Sixteen
Tyler
The fuck? She cannot be serious. “What do you mean you took the job? You went in for an interview, Mira. Places like Blue don’t hire on the spot. What the hell did you do?”
“God, Tyler! What are you insinuating?” She squirms away from me and stands, brushing past me into the living room.
Haven’t lost my touch. Except normally when women make celestial exclamations I’m doing something that gets them going, and they use words like God, and Jesus, Tyler, mixed in with a few cries of more. But that hasn’t happened in a long time, because in spite of appearances lately, I haven’t actually hooked up with a woman in forever.
I follow Mira into the other room, where she spins to face me. “Is it so hard to believe someone would want me?” Her voice comes out strong, but her eyes are all vulnerability.
She thinks no one wants her? Is she crazy? Everyone wants Mira.
I attempt to calm my anger—with her, with myself. “You can’t take that job, Mira.”
