Page 110 of Renard's Deliverance

“What the fuck kind of question is that?” he asked.

She startled, holding in a moan of pain as her back protested. The painkillers were doing a good job of masking the pain, but her back still didn’t like sudden movements, she guessed.

“Didn’t like it? Fuck me, baby, you let me do that every day and I might turn into one of those happy-go-lucky assholes who are always smiling. Beginning to see why the men around here are so happy all the time, their women let them do that to them each morning before breakfast, it would be the best part of their day.”

Her brain scrambled to keep up with his words, but basically, she got that he was saying he liked it.

“Then aren’t you uncomfortable?”

He snorted. “Do you mean are my dick and balls sore because I didn’t get to come? Yep. Do I care? Is it going to make life hard for me? Is it going to make me grouchy? Do me damage? No, baby. This was about you, not me.”

Her brain reeled from that.

This was about you, not me.

Holy. Crap. Balls.

“Never had someone say that to me.”

“Then you’ve hung out with the wrong men, baby.”

Yep.

She sure had. But if there was a God, it seemed he was setting that right.

21

“Ireally don’t think it’s necessary to buy both sanders,” she said, staring at the large upright sander, then at the smaller one, which didn’t seem such a bad investment. Maybe she could start making her own furniture or something.

Perhaps it would take off and she’d make a heap of money.

You should just stickto what you know and not have dreams, Opal. Girls like you shouldn’t have dreams. You don’t deserve them.

Crap.

A sick feeling developed in her stomach. Stefan’s voice was infiltrating her mind more and more lately and she didn’t know why.

It was like the more that she tried not to think about him . . . the more she thought about him.

Urgh. It really sucked.

“We could just rent the floor sander, right?” she questioned.

“Am I a man?”

Weird question.

“Uh, yes.”

He slid her some side eye. “I don’t appreciate the way you hesitated over that, Gem.”

She grinned. “Apologies, your manliness. Yes, you’re a man. A very manly man. The manliest of all men. I bow down before your manliness.” She bowed and he grunted.

“A yes would have sufficed.”

It might have, but it wouldn’t have been so funny.

“What does having a dick got to do with sanders?” she asked him.

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