Page 49 of Bossy Romance

I clamp up.

Adam notices my discomfort, but he doesn’t let it go. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a sister?”

I dig my fingers into the couch.

Okay,normallyAdam is just as effective as my pills.

But not when he starts prodding and prying at the parts of me that I keep separate from him.

I open my eyes and notice his dark gaze boring into me. It’s like a power drill trying to make its way into my skull. And since I have my own jackhammer currently going to town inside my cranium, I could do without another power tool.

“You don’t need to know her,” I say finally.

“Yeah, well, for a second there, I thought I didn’t know you.”

I frown at him.

His eyes, as dark as the midnight sky, are firm on my face. “Why did you treat your sister like that?”

No.

No freaking way.

I’m not doing this with Adam. Pushing off the couch so he has to back away from me, I stumble to my feet.

“Nova, I’ve never heard you talk toanyonethat way. Not even a staff member who messed up badly.”

I turn away from him.

“What’s going on between you two?” Adam presses.

“It has nothing to do with you, Adam,” I spit. He’s prying at the wounds inside my heart that I never let anyone close to. It hurts too much.

“Why don’t you want to give her a job? I don’t have a problem with it.”

“Well, I do.”

“Why?”

“Because she doesn’t deserve it,” I snap.

“No matter what she’s done, she’s still your sister.” He points out. “I’m sure she wouldn’t have come to you unless there was no other option.”

He has no idea what he’s talking about.

“Maybe it isn’t my place to intervene—”

I whirl around, my eyes burning with flames. “You’re right. It’s not.”

He doesn’t flinch. He just watches me like he’s trying to figure me out.

“Why are you harping on this?” I demand.

“Honestly? It was uncomfortable watching you treat your sister like that when I know that’s not who you really are.”

I open my mouth to blast him about the way he’s been treating Rowan and how he has no right to judge me. Just then, Rowan pokes his head into the room. When he sees that he’s been noticed, he walks over and hands me a cup of water.

“Thanks, sweetie.” I take a headache pill and knock it back with water.

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