“Oh, I do. I really do, but I think that it would be better if we had this discussion out here, don’t you?” Garrett drawled as he crossed his arms over his chest, causing the muscles in his arms and chest to shift in ways that made it difficult to stay focused.
“Wouldn’t you be more comfortable inside?” Kristen asked, trying not to sound hopeful as she gestured in his direction, doing her best to ignore how good he looked in his boxers and-
Focus!
“I’m fine right where I am,” he said, looking bored.
“You look cold,” Kristen said with a pitying look, hoping that it would be enough to convince him to go back inside so that she could get back to work.
“And yet, I’m fine,” Garrett said, gesturing for her to get on with it.
Kristen opened her mouth only to realize that she had no idea what she was supposed to say, but she knew better than to let him know just how much she needed him, and God, did she need him right now. She thought that she finally broke through her writer’s block this morning, but she’d been wrong.She’d spent the last twelve hours staring at her computer screen, desperate to write another word, but the only thing that she’d managed to do was think about just how easy it was to write when she was with him.
She wanted to be wrong.
God, she’d never wanted anything more in her life, but the moment he stepped into the room, the words that had been evading her since she left the hotel this morning came flooding to the surface and she was finally able to write. As much as she hated to admit this, she needed him.
If he had any idea just how badly she needed him, he’d-
“So, this is what I’m thinking,” Garrett said, making her bite back a groan, “for every two hours that I let you use me for my body, you’ll spend an hour with me.”
“That’s really not going to work for me,” Kristen said with a heartfelt sigh and a sad shake of her head.
“That’s my price,” Garrett said, shrugging it off as he made a show of checking his nails.
“You owe me,” she reminded him.
“Which is why I’m only asking for an hour for every two hours that I let you use me for my body,” Garrett said, shrugging it off as he dropped his hand away while she stood there, narrowing her eyes on the large bastard that did everything in his power to destroy her life.
“It’s never going to happen,” Kristen said, hugging her laptop against her chest as she glared at the large bastard.
“Are you sure about that?” Garrett asked with a pointed look at her laptop.
“Positive,” she bit out between clenched teeth.
Slowly nodding, Garrett considered her for a moment before he shrugged as he pushed away from the door. “Then, I guess there’s nothing else to talk about.”
“I guess not,” Kristen said as she watched him step back into the house and with a knowing smile that had her hands twitching with the need to throw her laptop at his head, he closed the door behind him with a satisfied sigh.
Kristen stood there for another minute, glaring before she found herself slowly nodding. This was fine, more than fine, because she didn’t need him.
Not even a little bit.
She’d figure this out on her own because the last thing that she wanted was to spend time with the jerk who tried to ruin her life.
CHAPTER 9
“And…Nothing,” Kristen mumbled pathetically as she sat there, staring helplessly at her laptop before she nodded to herself, placed the laptop on the coffee table and promptly flopped over onto her side so that she could release heartfelt sighs while she watched as the Goonies filled their pockets with One-Eyed Willie’s treasure.
“I would have taken the dagger,” she mumbled sadly, too depressed to do anything more than release another heartfelt sigh as she reached down to pet the dog that was currently not speaking to her only to have him get up and make his way across the room, where he dropped down in front of the window with a heavy sigh.
“Is this because I called you Fido?” Kristen asked, watching as the large golden retriever narrowed his eyes on her before he pointedly looked away.
“Would you prefer Lassy?” she asked, blinking as the dog that really didn’t seem to appreciate her naming efforts shifted until his back was to her.
“I still think Spot could have worked,” Kristen mumbled before shifting her attention back to her laptop screen and sighed.
One whole week and not a single word, making her hate the bastard even more. No matter how badly she wanted to write, and God, she would give anything to be able to write again, she refused to give in to the bastard’s demands. Which meant that she was going to have to figure something else out, Kristen thought as she reached over and closed the laptop so that she could stare helplessly at the television while she tried to figure out what that something was.
