Page 6 of Off Limits
“You’re attractive, Jane. There’s no denying that.” He combed his fingers through his hair and avoided her gaze. “But you know me. I only do hookups. This was one.”
She sucked in a breath.
His chest knotted. He looked everywhere but at her. His words had hurt her. He hated that, but what could he do? Fucking her again could not happen. And she wouldn’t just back off on her own. She had a soft spot for him and was clearly on a mission.
“I don’t believe you.”
For fuck’s sake. Despite every cell in his body screaming for him not to be a dick, it was the only way to put an impenetrable wall back up. If he left even a tiny crack in the door, she’d barrel through it.
He stomped over to her, backing her up against the desk. Gripping her chin between his thumb and index finger, he lifted her head. “Believe me, Princess, I’ll be inside someone else tomorrow.”
Her bottom lip trembled. Tears welled in her eyes but to her credit, she didn’t allow them to fall. “Fine. I’m going to use the restroom while you finish up.” She stamped out of the office.
“Fucking hell.” He placed both hands on the desk and dropped his head. How had he so royally fucked up? He would never strike another person, but he still broke people just like his bastard of an old man. And now he’d hurt the one person who had always been kind to him.
He shut off most of the lights from the control switch on the office wall and checked the thermostat to make sure the temperature throughout the building held. Gathering a few documents, he dropped them in his bag and slung it over his shoulder.
He strolled out of the office and rested his backside against one of the tables in the brewery. He glanced down the hallway that led to the restroom. For God’s sake. What was she doing in there? Pushing off the table, he strutted down the hallway toward the ladies’ room, then heard the squeal of tires.
He spun around.
Her white Jeep Wrangler peeled out of the parking lot as fast as the vehicle would allow. Damn it. He’d wanted to walk her out, to follow her home and make sure she arrived safely. His words had had their intended effect. Hell hath no fury like a scorned woman.
Chapter Four
Jane
To hell with Brady Hinckelson!Jane lowered the windows of her Jeep and let the cooler now-January air whip around her. She cruised down the roadway at a higher than speed limit rate. Her father had always teased her about having a lead foot, having obtained her first speeding ticket only six weeks after getting her driver’s license. Oh, well!
She couldn’t believe Brady had dismissed her that way. That he had the nerve to not only tell her he didn’t do relationships, which she knew, but that he’d have sex with someone new tomorrow. She felt dirty. Cheap. No one had ever made her feel that way.
She wasn’t celibate by any stretch of the imagination, but she didn’t sleep around. She treated her body like a temple and she didn’t share it with just anyone. Granted, she had sex with men she hadn’t loved but she’d been selective. Very selective. She’d had Brady in her sight for years.
Her crush on Brady had bloomed instantly the moment Rex brought him home from college for Christmas. His dark hair had been longer then, curling slightly at the ends. He’d looked completely out of place—rigid in posture, lips pressed in a tight line, like he was holding his breath. But his deep brown eyes had given him away, tracking every chaotic, heartfelt moment of the Bancroft holiday with quiet curiosity. And slowly, almost reluctantly, he’d begun to soften.
She’d only been fifteen at the time. Too young to fully understand the weight of what she was feeling—but it had started then, quietly. And as the years passed and Brady became more and more woven into the fabric of her family, that early fondness deepened into something she could only describe as love.
