Page 440 of Dark Love

Vex? “No. He wouldn’t even kiss me.” I can’t believe I just said that out loud. A blush burns its way up my face. “Not that I wanted him to kiss me… or he even thought about it. We’re just friends.” I think. “I mean, he sort of asked me out, but I don’t think it was a real date. Just a friends’ thing, you know.”

“I know exactly what you mean. You two are just ‘friends’ and he didn’t kiss you. Noted.” That grin of his gets odder and odder. “What was the weird part?”

“My boss showed up at my door and my friend answered.” Vex so wasn’t happy about that.

“Your boss? Why would your boss visit?”

“To bring me a bowl of chicken noodle soup.”

“That does sound odd. Are you very close to your boss?”

Oh. “Um, no. But that wasn’t the odd part.”

“It sounds odd to me. Unless you’re related or dating, bosses don’t usually bring you soup. I’ve never brought any soup to my employees.”

He wouldn’t have time to breathe if he brought soup to his thousands of employees. “It’s a small group of us.”

“Still seems odd.”

“Not odd. Adonis is just a thoughtful and caring boss.”

Max raises an eyebrow and pops what’s left of the cookie in his mouth.

“Really, he is. He brings soup to everyone. According to Mindy, it’s the best soup ever.” Why does it feel like I’m always putting my foot in my mouth? “Though I can’t confirm that because Ve—my friend slammed the door in my boss’ face. Wasn’t that odd?”

“Not since your ‘friend’ is a guy.”

“Huh? What does being a guy have to do with it?”

Max leans forward. “You don’t date much, do you?”

Ever is more like it. I shrug. “Not really.”

“A guy doesn’t watch Pride and Prejudice with a woman unless he wants to be more than a friend.”

“Really?” I knew that… sort of… I think. “But why would he slam the door on my boss? If Adonis wasn’t a reasonable guy, I might have lost my job.”

“That was probably his goal. No guy likes another man bringing his woman soup.”

But he didn’t bring me soup because I’m a woman. “But that doesn’t make sense.”

“You need to learn this now. We don’t always make sense. And when we get jealous, we’re barely even rational. We blow up the world first. Then ask questions later… Maybe.”

“But Ve—my friend is a very reasonable and calm man.”

“Doesn’t matter one bit. When I thought someone was hitting my wife, all I could think about was murder. Violent and bloody murder. I was going to rip him limb from limb and that’s an edited version of what was going on in my mind. Reason didn’t exist.”

Who can be reasonable when someone they love is in danger? “Did you find the man?”

His smile turns down. “No. We found out the bruises were from cancer. I would have given anything for it to be a man hurting her. That I could have fixed.”

I reach out and touch his arm again. “Being big and strong doesn’t mean you can fix every problem for the people you love.”

“It should.” He shakes his head like he’s clearing his mind. “But my point is, jealous men aren’t rational. Don’t try to make sense of his actions.”

Jealous? Could Vex like me enough to be jealous? “That would make what I did even worse.”

“What could you have possibly done?”

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