Page 24 of Merry Me
“I don’t need saving,” I said, my voice clipped, even as I shivered and immediately regretted not wearing real pants.
Easton raised his eyebrows, his grin widening. “You’re awfully stubborn for someone who’sstranded.”
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Tried again.
“I’m…evaluating my options.”
“Uh-huh.” He scratched his jaw like he was thinking real hard. “Would one of those options be accepting a ride from the guy who’s offering, no strings attached?”
My eyes narrowed. “Do you even know how to do ‘no strings attached,’ Maddox?”
His grin widened, and damn it, it was still the most devastating thing I’d ever seen. “Not when it comes to you.”
Boom. There went my ovaries. I didn’t need them. Not for this trip anyway.
I wanted to argue, but my family was already gone, and asking them to come back and get me with all the wedding stuff going on would just be rude. I also didn’t have the time to wait around for a tow truck to take my car to the mechanic to get fixed, as the first wedding event was in just a few hours.
Not to mention I didn’t want to have to pay for what a cab ride would cost.
“Fine,” I muttered, stalking toward his truck. “But we are not doing the thing.”
“What thing?”
“The thing,” I said, gesturing vaguely. “Where we rehash old memories or talk about what we’ve been up to the last couple of years.”
“You mean the last twenty-three months, twenty days, and twelve hours,” he offered casually.
I tripped over my own feet. Literally. Because my brain had short-circuited at his disturbingly accurate math. “That was oddly specific.”
“Mmm,” he said vaguely, winking at me like he was actually trying to kill me. “I like to be precise about the important things.”
Like the date I dumped him. Great.
Why was I like this?
He opened the passenger door like a gentleman—or a man who was secretly trying to ruin my life with his good manners—and I stood there debating if I could vault into the truck without flashing him or tearing something.
Spoiler alert: I could not.
“Ah,” I cried out as Easton’s strong hands gripped my waist, lifted me up like I weighed nothing, and set me in the cab.
“That’s also not allowed, Maddox,” I managed to comment after I finally collapsed in my seat, sparks lighting up my veins from where he’d been touching me.
I took a deep breath. Well, that was a mistake. The truck smelled like new leather and cologne—his cologne—aka my favorite scent in the world.
“What’s not allowed?” he asked, cocking his head, that same smug, hot, annoying smile on his lips as he watched me desperately take in hits of his scent like it was the only oxygen my body recognized.
“Touching,” I said pointedly. “Notouchingallowed.”
“Phew, I thought you were going to say that I wasn’t allowed to stare at your perfect ass. And then I would have to say no, and it would be this whole thing.”
He closed the door in my face before I could say anything.
The audacity.
Easton got behind the wheel, a grin on his face like he’d won some kind of competition.
“Natalie?” he asked, sounding amused. It took me a second to realize words had come out of his mouth, I was so entranced watching the muscles in his forearms move as he turned the steering wheel. I blinked and casually wiped my face, making sure no drool had slipped off.
