Page 24 of Love You Like That (Excess All Areas 4)

Zoe mentally rolled her eyes. “Shocking, isn’t it?” Biting down her sarcasm and the last fuck she had to give, she took a deep breath and settled herself. “I only went deaf in the last few years, but I’ve always had issues with my ears. Anyway, your work? It’s close?”

Taking the hint, Amit nodded. “Manufacturing plant.” Pause. “Ten minutes away.” Pause. “Not a welder.” A bead of sweat appeared on his brow, and Zoe couldn’t decide if it was the nerves of speaking with her or the pressure to be understood.

“You don’t need to be so deliberate. Just talk normally. I’ll tell you if I can’t keep up,” she said.

“Oh, okay. I mean, I can weld. But I work on a robotic welding line. The robots do the hard work.”

She focused on his mouth and what she could hear. It was enough. Weld. Robots. “That sounds interesting.” She prayed there wasn’t a quiz at the end of it.

“Do you really do that? What Alex said?”

“I do.” The sentence was simple, but it felt like…a lie. It was what she did. For now. But in her heart, she knew the truth. Worse, she felt it to her very core. She was still very much a percussionist. A sense of betrayal engulfed her, that she’d let herself down.

The revelation shook her.

She reached for her wine and took a big gulp.

“Tell me about it,” Amit said.

Right, tell him about it. Words. When she was feeling rocked inside. “Sure. Yes. Erm. Well, I write series bibles for authors who have lots of books out and my current author is a romance author.”

“Would I know her?”

“You’re assuming it’s a woman?”

“Isn’t it?”

Alex better hustle back from the toilet because she was already completely over peopling with Amit. “It happens to be. I wouldn’t know if you know her.”

“Is it like that Fifty Shades of Grey chick?”

“Woman.”

“What?”

“You called a grown woman a chick.”

“Oh, right. How pornographic is it?”

Suddenly, the look in Amit’s eye no longer felt safe. She couldn’t explain why. “I didn’t catch that, sorry.”

“Like, is the sex pretty graphic then?” he asked.

“Do you know what the score in the Villa game is?” She glanced around, pretending to look at the TV while searching for Alex.

A hand gripped her bicep and shook her. A loud cheer hurt her ears. Too loud. The men at the table were on their feet. Someone scored. Amit spoke to her. Words came out. But in her panic, she couldn’t focus enough to read them.

She tried to free her arm from his grip. “Don’t shake me to get attention.”

Amit looked over her shoulder, his jaw dropping, and he released her arm immediately, bringing his palms up to face her in submission.

Alex appeared next to her, pushing his way between the two of them.

Hands. Her.

Alex was stepping in. But she didn’t need his help, instead, she dropped down off the stool. “Don’t put your hands on a woman to make her pay attention to you. Ever. Deaf or not. We don’t owe you that, and you don’t have the right, you dick.”

She headed for the door without waiting for his answer. The hotel was only a ten-minute walk away. And right now, she wanted some peace and quiet. To take her hearing aids out. Have a bath maybe.

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