“I’m coming inside.”
I shook my head adamantly. “No.”
“Why not?” He crossed his arms over his chest, making his biceps bulge. He still wore the same ring on his indexfinger as before, and it contrasted against his light olive-toned skin and made me recall how it felt to have his hands on my skin.
I glanced away quickly, and he cleared his throat.
Right.He’d asked me a question. “Because I said so.”
Great comeback, Rett.
His gaze pinched tighter than my grocery budget as he leaned in. “You weren’t this disagreeable before.”
“You weren’t this annoying,” I retorted.
Suspicion gleamed, and it made me feel instant guilt as if I were caught in the act. But I wasn’t doing anything at all!
“Something in there you don’t want me to see?” he asked, flicking that ominous stare at the door behind me.
“No,” I stated.Maybe.
His tongue flicked over his teeth like he had to get rid of the bad taste in his mouth. “You seeing someone?”
“W-what?”
“You got a man in your house?”
“That’s none of your business.”Tell him, Rett!
He lurched back as though I’d offended not just him but his entire bloodline. A resigned, benevolent look transformed his face, making him appear almost like a stranger. He made a motion with his hand. “Step aside.”
“What?”
His shoulders flexed. “Step aside. I’m going in.”
I won’t lie. I felt scared for the person in my apartment, a person who didn’t even exist. But the way he looked now promised he’d find someone and they’d pay for existing. “I-it’s not unlocked.”
His laugh was pure menace. I was pretty sure every spider and cockroach within hearing distance just ran for the hills.
“There’s no one in there,” I admitted. “I live alone.”
His chin tipped back, and he considered my words while staring down his nose. “Then why won’t you let me in?”
“Because that’s my space!” I burst out, suddenly not caring if every last one of his ancestors was offended because my ancestors were offended too! I mean, they probably weren’t, considering I was the black sheep of my family, but still,Iwas offended.
Sucking in a breath, I went on, “You already took my heart. I’m not giving you anything else!”
Oof. Too far.
My teeth snapped when I slammed my mouth closed, mind whirling with how I was going to have to backpedal.
Hiro’s shoulders dropped, and a heartbeat passed between us. “Listen, if this is about the creamer…”
A laugh burst out of me. I’d literally just confessed that I’d never gotten over him, and he thought this was about creamer? Consider me stunned and slightly offended.
“It’s not just the creamer,” I said through clenched teeth, hand slicing through the space between us. I mean,okay, I was still pretty upset about the creamer, but that wasn’t all. “It’s the fact that you seem to think leaping in front of a bullet for me is some sort of apology for disappearing the way you did.”
“I didn’t disappear! I told you where I was going and that I wasn’t coming back. I made no promises.”
