Page 35 of Red Hunt

He put the box he’d just lifted down, turned to me, and walked right up to me. Close. Really close.

“Okay, little dove. Let’s spit it out. What’s bothering you? Do you really want me to leave?”

Wow, I didn’t expect him to confront me head-on. Did he really want to be here with me? And did I really want him to go?

No.

But where did that leave us? “I’m just… I owe you so much already. I can never repay you for all the things you do for me.”

“So that’s what’s been bothering you?”

I nodded, but not once took my eyes from his face.

“Let me tell you something about myself. I’m a selfish bastard. I take what I want, and I leave what I don’t want. I don’t spend my time with people I don’t like, and I never…never keep score with those I do…like.”

I swallowed because…wow, just wow.

“And for some mysterious reason, I really like spending time with you. And I would really like to get to know you better.”

Okay. Wait a minute. There was this amazing, sexy man, who I actually knew nothing about, except he’d rescued me, protected me, and cared for me. And now he wanted to get to know me? Seriously?

I clamped down my teeth to suppress the squeal that was threatening to come out. I needed to call Sharon or Claire, or anyone. Instead, I blinked and smiled, without opening my mouth, and nodded.

“So, you’re down with that?”

I nodded again. Hell, yeah, I was down with that even though the ghosts of my past immediately reared their ugly heads and told me that I had no clue what I was agreeing to. I wouldn’t listen anymore. I was an adult. I was done being a victim, done making only the safe choices, done watching all the people around me fall in love and live their lives exactly how they wanted while I sat on the sidelines, living only in the virtual world and surviving the rest.

He marched me to the cash register and made me sit down. In record time, he went up the stairs, prepped an ice pack for me, and was back to hand it to me. Then he went back to the supplies only to come back once again with a cardboard box he laid down and gently positioned my leg on, then he continued re-stocking the shelves as if that was the most natural thing in the world.

I couldn’t see him from where I was sitting. Which made me antsy. Plus, I had nothing to do. And I wanted to watch him. “You don’t even know our system.”

“How hard can it be?”

I could hear the chuckle in his voice. “Grandpa wants things handled a certain way. I didn’t even show you…”

He rounded the corner of the aisle he was in, strolled toward me, leaned down, and put his hands on the armrests, effectively boxing me in.

“Why don’t you come over there, so you can supervise and tell me exactly how your system works and correct me on all the things I’m doing wrong?” The silkiness in his voice and the nearness of his face smoothed any edge his statement could have had. It was disarming, and it was sweet and considerate. But, boy, I just knew he was doing things wrong, and I would come off as a petty control freak if I did what he’d proposed.

He chuckled in reply to me saying nothing. Then he got up, carefully positioned my leg as if I was precious, and pushed the office chair with me on it right over to where he was working, then he went back for the cardboard box and carefully settled my leg back on it. “Comfortable enough?” He grinned at me.

He wasn’t annoyed by my antics. Wasn’t annoyed about me wanting to watch him, or me not trusting him.

At all.

I watched him re-stocking the shelves, and he did it exactly as I would’ve done it. Petty control freak indeed. “Don’t you have to go back to work?”

“Called in sick.”

“Really?” I leaned forward and grabbed both armrests. “Why would you do that? I never asked you to do that.” I didn’t want him getting in trouble or losing his job because of me.

He smiled, leaned over, and brushed a stray hair behind my ear. “Relax, Mills. I’m messing with you. I don’t have another shift until next week.”

“Why?” Mills? Another nickname. He’d called me so many of those by now. It was as if he was testing which one fitted me the best.

“Yesterday was a trial run, so they could check me out, see if I passed muster. I officially start next week.”

“Oh, okay.” I felt dumb. I was making assumption after assumption.

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