He rumbled out a low laugh, the sound reverberating through my body and tightening my nipples into stiff peaks. “A little lower, kitten.”
“You’re a jackass.”
He shrugged, like he wasn’t carrying a fully grown woman over his shoulder. “A jackass who’s making sure you get to your car okay.”
He strolled easily across the parking lot, holding me to him with his hand cupped against my upper thigh, his thumb enticingly close to a place that hadn’t felt another’s touch in longer than I wanted to admit.
That was the only reason this flurry of butterflies erupted in my stomach at the chaste touch. Theonlyreason my downstairs suddenly perked up after a hibernation long enough to make even the fiercest grizzly bear jealous.
“Ford McKenzie,” I spat in the sternest voice I could muster. “Put me down right this second.”
He hummed low in his throat—a sound I wasn’t sure I would’ve heard if I hadn’t been pressed up against him. “I love when you say my name like that, kitten.”
“Then next time I’ll just call you Assho—”
Before I could get the rest of the word out, he bent at the waist and set me on my feet. With his hands on my hips, he steadied me, his eyes boring into mine. Despite the smirk on his mouth, his brow was creased, his eyes wary as he watched me. As if he was…concerned?
Tension hummed between us with nowhere to go. Not when my car was at my back and Ford was so close I could hardly breathe. Except I had to, which meant I sucked in a lungful of his frustratingly delicious scent, all crisp and clean and warm, and I absolutely wasnotthinking about what it’d be like to press my nose into his neck and inhale straight from the source.
He stepped forward, and my breath caught in my throat. What was he doing? Why was he so close that I could feel the heat coming off his body, and why the hell did I like it so much?
As I was locked in the prison of his gaze, unable to look away, he reached around me and opened my car door. Then he plucked the broken shoe from my hand and tossed it onto the passenger’s seat before he brought his attention back to me. I could’ve sworn his gaze dropped to my lips, but it was over in a millisecond and then his eyes were focused on mine once again.
A beat passed where neither of us said anything. Was I even breathing? Who the hell knew.
Then he broke the spell when he opened his insufferable mouth and sent any ounce of attraction that had boiled up back into the depths of hell right where it belonged. “You let me know about that date, kitten. I can’t wait.”
CHAPTERFIVE
QUINN
In the twoweeks since the auction, I’d come to the conclusion that my brief slip of sanity had all been thanks to my heightened emotions following the encounter with Dr. Dicknose, his insistence that I needed a husband to buy this practice, and then overhearing the call between him and my father. That was the only plausible excuse I had for paying an obscene amount to go out on a date with Starlight Cove’s poster boy for one-night stands.
The night of the auction, Ford had followed me back to Mabel’s, watching from his car as I’d stumbled into the house, trying my damnedest to make it seem like everything was fine and glaring his way when he’d opened his door and attempted to step out to help me. The last thing I’d needed was for that gossipy old woman I lived with to get wind of Ford being there that late at night. Since then, I’d traveled the full range of emotions. From irritated to frustrated to angry to, finally, acceptance.
Acceptance that I absolutely wouldnotbe going out on a date with Ford McKenzie, money be damned.
Initially, I’d toyed with Mabel’s suggestions, thinking it would be downright entertaining to use the date to torment him. After all, if I was going to pay that much, it only made sense that I got at least a modicum of enjoyment out of it.
The trouble was, everything I came up with to fuck with him—even drawing inspiration from our extensive history as rivals—wouldn’tactuallyfuck with him. The guy was as easygoing as a stoner who’d just taken his third hit, which meant that even my targeted attempts to irritate him would fall flat.
And falling flat was something I tried never to do in anyone’s presence, least of all Ford McKenzie’s. Which meant I absolutely was not going to subject myself not only to a date with him, but one where he had the upper hand.
As much as I wanted to make him suffer, I wasn’t in the right headspace to makemyselfsuffer right along with him. Not when my days consisted of working with Dr. Dicknose, where he belittled my every move and then felt it was appropriate to discuss me—namely, my appearance, my social life or lack thereof, and my eating habits—with my father any chance he got.
It was Friday evening, and I was ready to head back to my temporary home, the last patient having cleared out. Dr. Dicknose was handling closing things down and locking up while I followed Alicia outside into the warm July air. This saint of a woman had been putting up with the pain-in-the-ass doctor for three long years before I showed up. She was around my age, with dark skin and cheekbones to die for, her black hair a cloud of curls framing her face.
“Oh my God, I can’t stand it anymore,” she blurted before we’d even walked four feet outside. “Ineedthe details!”
I slid my gaze to her, one brow cocked. “What details?”
“Oh please. The date! WithFord,” she emphasized. “I’ve been waiting for you to bring it up, but I don’t have the patience for that. I know you haven’t gone out yet, because Mabel has been doing daily updates about it on her Lives. The buzz around town is that nothing’s happened since the night of the auction when he was spotted dropping you off at Mabel’s—”
Like I didn’t know directly wherethatpiece of information had come from…
“—and I’ve tried to play it cool, but I’mdyingto hear the details. It’s been two weeks. My chill is long gone. Tell me all the things!” The excitement in her eyes was unmistakable.
Excitement I was about to extinguish.
