“Yeah, you ruined it!”
He blinked slowly and turned around, walked away a few paces, throwing his hands in the air. “I won’t mess with you anymore.” His voice was deep and gravelly.
“Good,” she threw out, crossing her arms over her chest.
“You know what? Fuck that,” he said, rounding on her. “You came up with all these ways that I’m somehow a bad dude, or I have ulterior motives, and that’s not fuckin’ fair. You don’t know me. I was upfront. I won’t get attached. I can’t. I find you interesting. I wanted to hang with you tonight to get to know you, and that’s what it really is. That’s all. No one is making funof you. You know what my sister would say if she met you? That you’re too good for me and tell me not to fuck it up. My friends? They’ll warn you off of me and then give me shit when I mess it up.”
“You’re cussing a lot.”
“I don’t care. This is me, Moira. This is what it is. You,” he said, jamming a finger at her, “Do not get to make up theories and stories about who I am. I’m simple. I live here,” he said, gesturing to a cabin behind the check-in hut. “I cuss when I want to, I go into town when I’m lonely, and I focus on my career here. I’ve been carving this ATV tour business out of nothing, and I’m doing it as a shifter. I work my ass off, I ask nothing of anyone, and I don’t mess with women’s heads like you’re accusing me of. I’m comfortable stating what a mess I am upfront. It’s not a game. It’s honesty. Forget I asked you. It was a mistake.” He stormed past her, shaking his head.
Moira parted her lips to spew some vitriol his way, but no words came out. What he’d said was fair and she felt…well, she felt stupid for overthinking his invitation.
“Someone did that to me in high school.”
He turned, and whooo he looked angry. His eyes were straight molten gold now and his face was sharper. He even looked bigger than he had a few moments ago.
“Did what?” he barked out.
“They took a bet that they could get me, and he was really nice to me, and the second I gave in and was nice back to him, he took the money he’d won from his bet, and everyone made fun of me, and then…then...” She swallowed hard. “You know what? Forget it. This is all pointless.”
She took her turn stomping past him now, but he gripped her arm and yanked her around.
The moment his lips crashed onto hers, Moira was shocked into stillness. She didn’t even close her eyes. The breath wasstolen from her lungs as the heaviness of his dominance consumed her. The kiss was fast, and hard, and half-violent. His hand went to the back of her neck and held her trapped in place.
Moira this morning would’ve kicked him in the ball sack, but Moira now? She gripped his sweater in her fist and didn’t want the kiss to end.
His jaw moved as he pushed his tongue past her lips and kissed her deeper.
And just as fast as he’d started this fire, he ended the kiss and yanked her hand from his shirt, then made his way around the check-in hut to the cabin out back. A few moments later, the slamming of the front door made Moira jump.
“Well, that was weird,” Birdie offered unhelpfully from where she and Lance were standing way too close to her.
“Do you just wake up hoping to piss people off every day?” Lance asked. His frown was annoying.
“I don’t know if he was angry,” Birdie speculated. “He sure put a lot into that kiss.”
“Why are either of you talking to me?” Moira demanded.
And then Birdie did something horrifying. She marched right up to Moira and hugged her.
Hugged.
Her.
With her arms. With her body. Hugged her.
Moira swallowed a gag and held her arms out straight like a starfish. “Get her off me,” she gritted out to Lance.
“No. This is probably good for you, you friggin’ gremlin.”
“I’m sorry,” Birdie whispered, smushing her cheek against Moira’s.
“For what?” she asked, trying to back out of this weird embrace.
Birdie hugged her tighter. “For whatever happened in high school. Screw those guys who hurt you.”
“It was just one guy and I’m fine. Please unhand me.”
