Page 109 of Craving Francesca

“Whoops,” Myla murmured knowingly. “Maybe if you’dsaidsomething.”

“Shit,” I breathed, dropping my phone to the floor.

We stayed outside bitching and talking until we passed out one by one. I woke up to footsteps on the floorboards. When I opened my eyes, I nearly shit myself before I realized that I knew the men on the sunporch well.

“I’m still pissed at you,” I snapped as Gray bent over me.

“Cool,” he said unconcernedly. “You still can’t sleep on the fuckin’ sunporch.”

“I put Lou in bed,” Cian told Gray. “I’m gonna bring Myla home.”

“Thanks for lettin’ me in.”

“Anytime,” Cian replied.

I pushed myself up onto my elbow. “No, notanytime. You shouldn’t even have a key to my house.”

“Used Myla’s,” he replied, disappearing into the house.

“She’s lost key privileges,” I muttered under my breath.

“If I pick you up, are you going to punch me?” Gray asked.

“There’s a really good chance of that, yes,” I replied, getting up myself. “Why are you even here?”

Gray followed me inside and locked the door behind him. “Because I didn’t want to sleep without you.”

Throwing up my hands, I turned to face him. “You don’t get to be sweet to me.”

“Why not?”

“You called me akicked dog.”

“Poor choice of words.”

“You think?” I snapped.

“Put yourself in my shoes,” he replied. I both loved and hated that he was so calm when I was so angry.

“Oh, this should be good.”

He scowled. “I’m with you on a couple of bad days—I think, no matter how you want to describe ’em, they’d be considerednotgood. And I’m thinkin’,man, I’m fuckin’ gone for this woman, but she’s been through some shit.I don’t want to make things harder for you, so I back off for a while. Then I see you a month later, and you’re a goddamn shadow. Bags under your eyes, lost weight, fake laugh, just worn the fuck out. Turns out I shouldn’t have given you that time, what I should’ve been doin’ was keepin’ an eye on you.”

“I didn’t need you to babysit me,” I cut in stubbornly.

“No,” he barked. “You needed me tobe therefor you because you sure as shit weren’t letting anyone else, and Iknewthat.”

“You think that justifies you going behind my back—”

“I think that justifieseverything,” he yelled. I was pretty sure it surprised both of us. “I think I got you out of a bad situation and made sure that you wouldn’t be comin’ straight back to it.”

“You had no right.”

“I have every fuckin’ right. What kind of man would I be if I saw you drownin’ and didn’t step in?”

“Oh, I don’t know. One that respects me?”

“You think I don’t respect you?”

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