Wes shot a warning glare at Zach and hesitated before lowering his hand. “If you’re sure. I’m just a phone call away.”
“Thanks again,” she said, turning to march toward Zach.
At least she hadn’t promised to call her date. That had to be a good sign.
Lauren grabbed Zach’s arm as she stomped past him and seethed, “Get inside.”
She threw her purse onto the couch and threaded her hands into her hair before whirling on him. “What are you doing?”
With her hair fanning out and a pink tint covering her cheeks, it was tough to focus on what she was raving about. “I was making sure you made it home safe.”
“Safe?” Doubling over, she let out a riotous laugh before pushing her hair out of her face when she stood. “Safe? I’m never safe. You’re always lurking around the next corner, ready to tear me to shreds!”
Okay, that wasn’t fair. He hadn’t hurt her. “That guy looked like he wanted to eat you up.”
“So?” She threw her hands out to her sides.
“So I’ll kill him,” Zach said, crossing his arms.
Lauren scoffed. “You can’t kill him.”
The heat was rising to a boil in Zach’s middle. Why couldn’t she see how vulnerable she was? All it would take would be one guy who decided he wanted more, and she’d be done for. “I don’t want him touching you. Or looking at you. Or anything.”
Lauren straightened, and her expression softened. It wasn’t a kind softening, but a resolved change, calculated and determined. She propped her hands onher hips and lifted her chin. “He can touch me if I say he can touch me.”
That did it. Something inside Zach snapped like a twig. He erased the space between them, stopping when they were nose to nose.
He had to give her credit. She didn’t back down or shrink when they went toe-to-toe. The way she pressed her lips together said she was ready to fight, but this was one thing he wouldn’t back down from.
“What about me?” he asked.
Her delicate brows pulled slightly together over her stormy eyes as she spat, “Whataboutyou?”
That was it. He was standing too close, and she was pushing too far. The soft floral scent she carried tingled in his nose and short-circuited his brain. He wasn’t in control anymore. Someone else was driving the ship, and he was just the pawn. “Do I get to touch you?”
Lauren’s nostrils flared slightly as she lifted her chin an inch higher to whisper, “Never. Get out.”
And that was his cue. He’d never been one to give up, but fighting with Lauren only made him want her more. Some pivotal part of his brain said he had to get out. It was now or never.
In three lumbering strides, he was out the door. The cold couldn’t touch him tonight. Not with the volcano about to erupt.
He was losing his grip. This was his fault. He’d lowered his defenses, but how was he supposed tohave known he’d need them againsther? She was the last person he’d have expected to bring him down.
Whatever she’d done to him was torture. It was a cross between anger and…desperation? Obsession? Whatever it was, it was making him physically sick, and he had to push it away before it swallowed him whole.
18
Zach
Asoft ticking in his ear and a searing cold in his hand pulled Zach from a fitful sleep. His neck was tighter than the barbed wire on the fences he’d been putting up at Silver Falls Ranch, and the pounding in his head could have raised the dead. What dump truck ran him over last night?
Right. Lauren Vincent. She was the reason he felt like hot garbage. Smart, beautiful, and deadly Lauren Vincent had invaded his world and crushed his soul.
It had actually been two days since she’d fileted him like a fish, but he kept replaying her words like they were fresh. They sliced through him every time. He rubbed a hand over his face and blinked past the exhaustion.
There was that annoying ticking sound. And…what?
His hand was wet. Drips of water fell from theceiling in a steady rhythm, landing on his hand and soaking the left side of the bed.
