Page 41 of Hell or High Water

When his eyes met mine again, there was nothing but amusement in them. “I’ve never had such a difficult time getting a female to relax around me.”

“Well, how many of them have you loathed at first sight and made sure they knew it?”

“I didn’t loathe you,” he said, turning back to his food.

“Uh, yeah, you did.” I wasn’t letting him deny that.

He glanced at me while holding a forkful of lasagna up to his mouth. “I didn’t like that I had been given the job of babysitting some girl who was blackmailing the governor. But I’ve gotten to know you, and you’re not so bad.” He stuck the food in his mouth then.

I stared at him for a moment, then looked back at my plate. Okay, that sounded believable. I wanted to believe him. Having him hate me had been miserable. Plus, it would make my secret attraction to him less annoying.

I picked up my fork and cut through the noodles.

“When you said classic, I was thinking more along the lines ofRaiders of the Lost Ark,” I told him, then put some more of the cheesy goodness in my mouth.

Eighteen

Than

“Are you closing your eyes?” I asked Montana as she sat on the other end of the sofa from me with her legs crossed and hands fisted in her lap. I’d glanced over at her to see her eyelids pinched tightly shut about the time the snake slithered through the skeleton’s mouth.

“Don’t judge. I hate snakes.”

A grin tugged at the corner of my mouth. “You were the one who suggested this movie.”

“Yes, I know. Is it over yet?”

I shifted my gaze back to the television to check. “Ah, not just yet.”

“Tell me when it is.”

I reached into the bowl of popcorn that sat between us. She’d claimed she was too full to eat any more when I said we couldn’t watch a movie without it, but I’d seen her hand reach into the bowl several times. I’d cut my eyes at her when she got her first handful, and she’d shrugged, then popped one into her mouth, grinning.

Getting her to relax around me had been harder than I’d anticipated. She didn’t trust easily, and it made me question why. Who was it that had made her so cautious? Another thing I shouldn’t be thinking about or even giving a shit about, but I was. I was going to have to keep a check on myself if I kept finding things out about her that appealed to me. Having the same taste in movies would at least give us something to do at night other than talk.

“Okay, you can open your eyes,” I told her when the scene changed.

She peeked from one eye, not trusting me until she verified I was telling the truth, and then opened both. I was still watching her when she took a quick glimpse in my direction. Damn, those eyes were something.

“What color green are your eyes?” I asked her.

I’d labeled them olive, then sea glass, but there had to be a name for that shade.

She shrugged. “I’ve never thought about that. I’m not sure.”

I studied them as her cheeks pinkened.

“Huh. Well, they remind me of sea glass,” I told her.

She scrunched her nose. “Is that bad?”

“Have you never seen sea glass?” I asked.

Her soft, pleasant laugh had me dropping my attention to her lips as they curled up.

“Yes, of course I’ve seen it.”

I tore my gaze off her mouth. “It’s unique. Your eyes are one of the things that stand out about you. That, and the freckles.”

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