Page 52 of Bargain with the Bachelor
“He’snother boyfriend,” I fired back a little too harshly.
And if I can find one speck of dirt on the guy, he never will be.
Every fiber of my being screamed the title of “boyfriend” should be mine and mine alone, but at the moment that possibility seemed farther out of reach than it ever had been.
Ever since she’d moved in, I’d been watching and waiting for signs Kristal might be interested in more than a friendship with me.
After today’s events, one thing was for sure—I couldn’t sit back and wait any longer.
I had to take action.
Chapter Fifteen
I Want You
Kristal
I lied. Not about the sightseeing and dinner part, but about the day being “fantastic.”
It hadn’t beenbad. Not at all. In fact, Larson was quite entertaining, much more laid back than he seemed on the nightly news. He’d been funny, sweet, and of course he was very nice-looking.
But he wasn’t Hunter.
Fool that I was, the only blue eyes I wanted to spend the evening gazing into were those amazing, turquoise-shaded ones unique to the Bestia brothers.
The only voice I wanted to listen to for hours on end was Hunter’s raspy, deep scrape of masculine sound.
All day I’d thought about how sore and possessive it had sounded out on the porch of the Cliffhouse as he’d forbidden me to leave and spend the day with Larson.
And the way he’d acted moments ago downstairs.
Could he be jealous?
Even daring to entertain the thought made my belly swoop like the seagulls soaring and diving outside.
More likely he’d just been looking out for me the same way he fussed over all the guys in the house. They didn’t call him “Doc” for nothing.
Based on the way he’d behaved around me the past few weeks, he saw me no differently than he saw them.
But what about the hungry way he’d looked at me that day when he’d accidentally walked in on me in the shower? (Not to mention thatmemorablewood he was sporting)
And the way I’d sometimes look up and catch him staring at me when we were in the house together?
Plus, I could haveswornhe was milliseconds away from kissing me on the beach before Romeo showed up.
Thinking about his confusing hot-and-cold behavior twisted me into complicated braids of confusion, anger, and longing.
I showered and put on my pj’s and curled up in bed with a novel, which I was failing miserably to read. Distracted by my whirling thoughts, I skimmed the same page at least three times.
What I’d told Larson about my relationship with Hunter was so far from the truth it was laughable. I didn’t regard him as a brother.
At all.
But today, he’d behaved exactly like the annoying “big brother” I’d accused him of being. In fact, Hunter had treated me like achild.
Of course, when I thought about it, how could I really blame him?
Ugh.I’d done it again. I’d made myself dependent on someone, let him take care of me, and now he thought he could control my life.
