Page 34 of Tangled

“What the hell?” He grunts when we finally stop, yanking his hand back from my grasp.

“What the hell? Do Drew and Tammy know about us?”

Kane’s silence is enough of an answer.

“Seriously? I thought we were trying to keep this between us?” I’m exasperated and the fury I felt towards him earlier this week is back with a vengeance.

“Hey! You can’t tell me that you didn’t tell your girlfriends about what happened between us, right?”

I shake my head. “That’s different! They don’t work with us!”

“Well, Drew is my best friend, and he just happens to work with us. Plus, he kind of put two and two together after how we acted towards each other in the teacher lounge. And if anyone was watching the way you dragged me across the field just now, I’m sure suspicions are already starting to fly.”

I sigh and then turn around, my hands running along my scalp as I pull on my hair in frustration.

“Great! It’s only a matter of time before the whole staff knows now…”

Kane steps forward, his hands gripping my shoulders so I’m forced to face him and can’t move.

“No. Drew and Tammy are good people and they wouldn’t do that. Believe me. Plus, I don’t know if Drew actually told Tammy we slept together. All she knows is that I was an ass to you. Drew told me that much. So stop stressing and take a deep breath.”

Surprisingly, with Kane’s grasp on my body, I do feel calmer, more at ease. His large hands make me feel capable of handling this, knowing he’s holding me up.

And maybe he’s right. All Tammy said earlier was that she knows Kane was a dick to me. Maybe she doesn’t know the whole truth.

When Kane’s hands leave my shoulders, I sink back, remorseful for the lack of contact now and embarrassed for my overreaction.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have overreacted.”

“Yup.”

“Yup? That’s all you’re going to say?”

“Yes. I agree. Youwayoverreacted.”

“You really are a dick, aren’t you?”

He laughs and then looks back over his shoulder to the field. When his head moves back in my direction, there’s a glint to his eyes that reminds me of what he looked like that night in the bar. The carnal lust that poured out of this man as he offered me a good time and then fucked me into oblivion.

My pulse is racing as he takes a few steps to me, my feet retreating until my back hits the brick wall of the tunnel we’re still encased in.

Leaning down while his hands on the wall lock me in place, Kane runs his nose along the column of my throat before lining up his mouth to my ear. I can hear my own breathing as I wait for his words.

“This is me, Olivia. I am a dick, a man who doesn’t know hownotto be honest and sugar coat my words.”

I swallow hard as I feel the pounding of my pulse beneath his nose on my throat. “What about that sweet side you showed me earlier? Bringing me coffee? That doesn’t seem like a dick move…” I whisper, my hands reaching up to hold on to his broad shoulders, reminding me of what it felt like to grip them while he fucked me.

“That was a rare move for me, I promise you. But then I rushed out this morning in the middle of our conversation… see? Dick move.”

I lean back so that I can search his eyes, desperately seeking some answers to this puzzle of a man in front of me. First, he offers himself up on a silver platter for one night of fuckery—and boy, did he deliver. Then when we meet again, he acts like an ass when he claims I can’t keep my emotions in check about our one-night-stand. Next, he apologizes with a coffee—which I found utterly sweet, yet confusing. And then he runs out of my room in the middle of a conversation that actually felt like we were two normal people who could possibly be friends.

Now, he has me pressed up against a wall, the sexy rasp of his voice filling my ears and the gold flecks of his eyes glowing like the eyes of a wolf who’s stalking its prey.

See my confusion here?

“What do you want from me, Kane?”

I watch Kane study me, his eyes bouncing back and forth between mine and my lips. I can smell the scent of his laundry soap, mixed with that woodsy smell of his cologne from the other night.

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