Part 17 (1/2)
She stepped closer, crowding him, even if he didn't retreat. ”Right. Whatever. So I came by to feed you and let you know you can snag a couple more hours' sleep. There's been a glitch with the technology, and it's going to be a while before they're up and running again to track the data. Now I deserve to know what happened here with you and Jayne.”
He hesitated.
”Don't hand me any bull about how we're not in a relations.h.i.+p.” She held her temper in check, because if she lost control of her emotions, she might just cry, and she would not humiliate herself that way. ”We've been sleeping together for four months. That ent.i.tles me to a straight answer.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face, then along his steel gray hair. ”We had a fight about Shay. Things got heated and”-he hesitated, swallowed, threw back his shoulders-”we kissed.”
THIRTEEN.
She blinked once. ”You kissed your ex-wife. You kissed her?”
Don could see the hurt in the furrow between her brows-coming from a woman who never showed softer emotions.
That cut him off at knees far more than buckets of Jayne's tears. ”I accept responsibility.”
A tic started at the corner of her eye. ”How can you be so calm about this? I know we don't have some great romance going here, but when I sleep with a man, I expect exclusivity. And I'm absolutely certain this isn't okay with Jayne's accountant fiance.”
He felt compelled to offer her some rea.s.surance. ”I did not sleep with Jayne.”
”A mighty big technicality. My mama always said close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. In case you were wondering, this qualifies as a grenade.”
Best to divert this conversation ASAP until she cooled down. ”Your mother? That's the first time you've even referenced a family.”
”I didn't crawl out from under a rock.” The tic twitched faster.
”So, if you didn't crawl out from under a rock,” he pressed ahead, ”where are you from?”
”I grew up in Kentucky.” She eyed him warily, fingers toying with the handles on the picnic basket. ”Mama and Daddy worked in the local car factory. They divorced when I was five.”
”Did your father cheat on your mother?” He risked a step closer. ”Is that why you're so fired up over one kiss?”
”h.e.l.l, I don't know if my father cheated or not.” She slammed the wooden basket handles down and faced him full on. ”I was five freaking years old. I'm ready to explode because we're sleeping together, and you plastered your mouth all over another woman.”
”I'm sorry.” He still didn't understand what had happened with Jayne, but he knew full well it was going nowhere. ”It meant nothing. I was comforting her because she'd heard about the bombing and drive-by. She was terrified for Shay and . . . Again, it meant nothing.”
”Absolutely do not pull out that cliche s.h.i.+t with me.” She tucked her hands on her hips, started to talk, shook her head, and turned away, then spun back. ”Do you love her?”
”No! f.u.c.k no,” he answered without hesitation.
”Do you hate her? Did marriage make you some kind of commitment phobe?”
His neck started to itch. ”I'm not that complicated.”
”You couldn't be more wrong about that. Don, there is a limit to how many cans of cream of mushroom soup I'm willing to waste on a man.”
He held his tongue, gauging what to say next that wouldn't send her spiraling into a full-tilt rage.
Her face went red anyway. ”Don't you dare ask if I'm PMSing, or I'm going to unleash some serious tae kwon do on your a.s.s.”
”You think you can take me?” he couldn't resist taunting.
Her eyes narrowed with s.e.xy lethality. ”In more ways than you can even imagine.”
He shoved his hands in his robe pockets, suddenly feeling d.a.m.ned vulnerable, given he was naked underneath. ”I should have kept my mouth shut. Excuse me for having a s.h.i.+tty week due to g.a.n.g.b.a.n.gers with terrorist connections gunning for my daughter. The kiss was a fluke, and no way in h.e.l.l will it ever happen again.”
”Don't insult me with more of those cliche answers.” She stepped closer.
”Pardon me?”
”No, I'm not going to pardon you this time.” She began circling him.
”You have to know I was only speaking in a figurative sense.” Where were his pants?
”Oh, I know full well that you won't commit to so much as an authentic apology.” She stopped in front of him, legs spread and planted, killer heels dangerously close to his bare feet. ”That makes it a little tough to believe you're not still carrying around feelings for the woman you were married to for nineteen years.”
”The woman I divorced fifteen years ago.”
”Excuse me for thinking you might have feelings for her. I a.s.sumed that must be the reason you've never been seriously involved with anyone else for as long as anybody can remember.”
Fine. He got it. He was inadequate when it came to anything a female would call meaningful. ”You're the one changing the rules, not me.”
She snorted her disgust. ”You're a freaking train wreck, Don.”
Frustration detonated inside him. He'd taken it when Jayne pulled that PTSD c.r.a.p on him; hearing it again, from this woman . . . ”f.u.c.k off, Paulina.”
Her face went into deep-freeze mode.
Ah, s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t.
Had he said that out loud? But he couldn't take it back, and she'd made it clear his apologies didn't mean jack. So he stood his ground and waited for the retribution he knew was com- She slapped him.
Yeah, there it was; however, even expecting it hadn't prepared him for the pain hammering his jaw. The woman was strong.
He anch.o.r.ed her wrist. ”I'll give you that one. But do not try it again.”
She flipped him on his back.
Holy h.e.l.l. He saw stars dancing around his ceiling fan. This was not his day.
But he wasn't going down easy. He still held her arm, lucky him. ”Don't say I didn't warn you.”
He hauled her down.
She slammed on top of him, tucking and rolling, tumbling again. His back crashed into the dining room table. Her basket slid across and hurtled to the carpet.
China shattered. Food splattered. She launched to her feet panting, only a second ahead of him.