“How am I?” I asked.
She nodded her eyes darting away from me then back on my gaze like she wasn’t sure why I was echoing her.
I was echoing her because she was acting like she hadn’t just put me through two weeks of fucking torture waiting on a response from her. “Not so fucking good, Reaper.”
“Oh,” she blinked at me in surprise. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re… Jesus Christ,” I muttered, then I grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around. I managed to get the door open in time so I didn’t make her face plant into it as I strong-armed her inside.
“What’re you doing?” She didn’t raise her voice, didn’t glare at me, didn’t show any emotion. She was just standing there watching me with that steady gaze.
I didn’t know how that made me feel when I was ready to pummel something. Rotor’s face wasn’t completely off the consideration list, since he started this. Then again, I would have had to tell her at some point. The only reason I hadn’t taken my brother to the boxing ring was because he’d just made this all come about faster. We would have landed here eventually anyway.
“Look. I fucked up. I get that,” I told her, voice cold. “I broke into your office, stole your reports, examined that fucking body, and while I wish I could say it’ll never happen again, we both know that isn’t true. But from now on I’ll talk to you about it first and give you the chance to work with me versus going into your space like that.”
Her mouth was hanging open. “So if I don’t work with you, you’ll go around me and do it anyway? Do you think that’s a concession on your part?”
I sighed. “It’s just the truth. Fuck if I know what I’ll do in the future, Rae. I’d rather we work together. I can promise you I’d never do something like this unless it was important. We were trying to prevent people from getting hurt. The people who live here. This town is under our protection.” I lifted my hands as I spoke. “It’s up to us to do whatever is necessary and we knew a threat was heading our way. We needed to know if they were here. We needed-”
“Did you eat my apple?”
I dropped my hands, arms hanging by my sides as I stared at her. “What?”
“The day you broke into my office. Did you eat the apple?”
Something was hanging in the balance here, I wasn’t sure what, but I was glad I hadn’t been the one. “Warrant ate an apple,” I said, remembering back. I’d wondered where he’d gotten that damn thing from.
“I knew I wasn’t crazy!” she exclaimed, hitting her hand into her fist.
Did I just pass a test?
“You-” I broke off, unsure what her interruption of my apology meant. Well, I hadn’t gotten to the apologizing part yet. I’d been explaining. Taking a deep breath, I met her gaze. “I’m sorry.”
Her brows rose. “You’re sorry?”
I gave a quick jerk of my head in affirmation.
“But you may do it again in the future?”
I nodded again. “Also…sorry. Like in the future sorry.”
She eyed me suspiciously.
Remaining silent, I just watched her. What else could I say?
She crossed her arms over her chest and I gave a valiant effort not to stare down at her tits as the move thrust them up in the blouse she was wearing. Valiant, but ultimately futile. I snuck a glance. “Did you start dating me just so that you could find out if the Iron Circle were coming to town?”
“No,” I bit out. “Why would I? All we would have done was break into your place without anyone dating you.”
She nodded as though she’d already come to the same conclusion, or one similar. “And why would you work so hard to win me over?”
I opened my mouth, trying to figure out how I was expected to respond to that. Might as well ask why I breathe air. She continued before I could settle on a reasonable answer, so I let her talk.
“I forgive you, Finn.” She smiled when I narrowed my eyes at her use of my given name.
It wasn’t that I minded it, I just hadn’t expected it. “What does that mean, exactly?”
“Do you still love me?”
