It was a miracle I didn’t cough it up. Hadn't he talked to me like I was stupid at least three times before this moment? I know that I must have had a what-the-hell face plastered because the expression on his face darkened.
All right, maybe I wouldn't point out how much of a hypocrite he was.
Even if Sonny had said he was harmless, that didn't mean his words were anything that resembled soft and caring. He was probably just dealing with me out of guilt. Whatever.
“It’s okay,” I warbled out.
“No, it’s not.” He ducked his head close, eyes searching mine again. “He scare you?”
I sucked in a ragged breath, sensing for the first time that my heart wasn’t pounding asforcefullyas it had been at first. “He caught me off guard,” I breathed out. Two men making me feel like a piece of crap in less than a week must have been a world record.
Dex tensed up before shifting his body over so that he stood in front of me, placing his hands on either side of my legs. He stayed quiet for the longest, his eyes flashing a multitude of emotions I couldn’t recognize under a tightly controlled mask. For a split second I wished I would have known him better to understand what was going through his brain, but as quickly as the urge came, it left.
Breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth consciously the entire time until he scratched the tip of his nose. “It won’t happen again.”
There was no way he could promise that to me. No way. But that magnetic, hot violence was still rolling off his shoulders and chest, caging me in even more so than his upper body physically was.
“I’ll talk to Rick, have him apologize, babe. I don’t need you bein’ scared. He’s a lousy drunk.”
I gave him a slow one-shouldered shrug, looking away. His breathing was noisy as I thought about how nice he’d just been, standing in front of me when his friend started yelling, trying to get me to calm down. But I didn’t get it. Just days ago, he was losing his flipping mind. Last week he’d been trying to kick me out. I didn’t get it and it made me feel uncomfortable and confused.
“I’m okay now,” I whispered.
He didn’t move or say anything.
I shifted forward on the counter, wiggling my bottom so that it was teetering over the edge but Dex was too close, and I couldn’t hop off completely without pressing myself fully against him. “I want to get down now.”
Of course he didn’t move. “Sit a little longer.”
“I’m fine,” I insisted, fighting the urge to look up at his face.
One of his hands slid onto my knee. Even over the thick material of my brown pants, it was searing hot. Or at least it waslike my blood flow had redirected itself to that one point under my skin.Damn you,traitorous body.“Iris, why won’t you look at me?”
Oh hell.
His voice took on that milky, smooth, deep tone that made me feel like a book of matches had been lit inside my gut, and the way he said my name…Ef. Me. I didn’t even think he knew my name. He hadn’t used it once the entire time I’d been working at Pins.
“I just want to get down,” I told him, glancing down at his hand.
Dex squeezed my thigh. “You can get down after you tell me why you still won’t look me in the face.”
I insisted. “Please.”
“No.”
“I want to get down.”
He squeezed me again. “No.”
“Let me down.”
“No.”
Oh shit. Annoyed as hell, I tilted my head up at him. “One minute you're kind of a fucking jerk—," did I just drop the f-bomb again? Why, yes, yes, I had. "Then the next minute you’re carrying me to my room and sharing your secret stash of bread with me. It doesn't make sense,” I said honestly. "I don't want to look at you because you hurt my feelings, okay? I don't know what to think."
And he just blinked. “That it?”
My head dropped back so I could look at the ceiling. Was this guy for real?
