Page 33 of All Too Well
“Then neither am I. What I am going to do is find somewhere to stay while I work on my story. If you’ll excuse me.”
She shrugs out of my coat, but I throw it back around her shoulders. “Put a damn shirt on.”
My guys do not need to see her like this. They’re already falling over themselves to be near her.
“The rest of my clothes are in the cabin.”
“Wear the jacket, Ainsley.”
She glares at me, but pulls it taut.
There was no real damage to the cabin, just some smoke, and we’ve deemed it unsafe for occupancy, which means Ainsley will not be spending another night in this shithole. Not that the motel in the area is an option, either, which means she’s going to stay with me and Rose.
Not an ideal situation when you’re trying to pretend you’re not in love with someone.
I’ll deal with it for the short time she’s here if it means she’s safe and not dealing with generators and God only knows what else.
“I don’t know when you became so damn bossy.” Her head whips around and I avoid getting hit with her ponytail. Triumph. Only then she turns again and I get whipped in the face. “What does it matter to you anyway?”
“For one it’s chilly. And the second thing is you’re barely wearing anything.” She pulls the jacket around her and flips her hair, giving me another slap in the face. “I’m going to cut your hair off if you keep doing that.”
Her glare would melt a lesser man. Thankfully I’m not intimidated. “Try it and I’ll cut something off you.” Her eyes move to my groin, letting me know exactly what she’d like to remove from me. “I need to get my things and regroup.”
“You’re not going in there.”
“Why?”
I don’t have an answer to that other than I’m pissed off at her. “Because it’s unsafe.”
“Umm, I heard your men say it was perfectly safe. So which is it? Are they incompetent, or are you?”
“Are you trying to piss meoff?”
She doesn’t reply. She just heads into the cabin, and I follow like a stupid puppy dog. When she gets to the door, she stops, and I almost plow into her. She whips her head around, and I duck, avoiding her damn hair.
She sighs. “I’m not trying to do that. I’m just trying to get a grip because today was a little freaking traumatizing, you know? Like, I have to be here, and I don’t know where to go now.”
I open my mouth to tell her how there is no story here and she should head back to New York, but instead I say something else. “You’ll stay at my house.”
Her lips part, and she blinks a few times. “I’m not staying with you.”
“Well, you’re not staying here or at the motel in town. Do you have another option?”
“No, but ... Lachlan, we haven’t even spoken for the last four years. Rose doesn’t know me, and it’s just a bad idea.”
I don’t disagree with her, but there aren’t any other options I can live with. As for Rose, she knows all about Uncle Caspian’s sister. She’s seen photos from when we were little, and he tells her all about the things I did to torment her when she was young.
She’ll be more than ecstatic to have a girl in the house.
Plus, Rose is a great buffer and cockblock, if it comes to needing that.
“It’ll be fine. Rose will love having you around, and I swear to God, if you fight me on this, I’ll call your father and tell him you almost died in a house fire.”
Ainsley gasps. “You wouldn’t.”
“I dare you to try me.”
I have zero issues calling the Admiral, and she knows it. I’d much rather call her father and deal with his anger than have to call him if something actually happened to her.
