“I’m good. But maybe you and I could go somewhere a little more private? You know, just to talk for a bit.” He took a step closer, reaching out and running his fingers down my forearm before wrapping them around my hand and giving it a tug. “Maybe get to know each other a little better?”
“Greg.” I pulled my hand from his and took another step back. “Look, you’re a sweet guy, but I think we’re looking for different things right now. See, I just got divorced. Right now, I need to concentrate on my daughter and building our life here. I’m not looking to start something with another man right now. I’m so sorry.”
That smile fell, taking all the charm with it. His brows slashed down into a deep, unhappy V. “Then what was all that shit at the bar the other night?”
“I’m sorry, but I think you might have gotten the wrong idea.”
“Or maybe you’re just a cock tease.” I rocked back on a foot at the venom in his voice. “I didn’t have the wrong idea. You put it right out there, practically throwin’ it at me.”
I thought back to that night, and could say with absolute certainty, I hadn’t thrown anything at him. “Okay, you know what? I think maybe you should go.”
“Yeah, I’m thinkin’ you’re right.” He looked me up and down, his top lip curling in a nasty sneer. “Waste of fucking time.”
I didn’t bother taking offense. I’d known more than enough men like him in my lifetime. A single blow to their ego, and they lashed out in an extreme and unwarranted way. His insult didn’t even faze me. In fact, all I felt as he stomped through the backyard toward the driveway, was relief.
Until I turned around and noticed the football game had stopped, and almost everyone was now staring in my direction . . . because a seething Micah was storming through the yard, looking like a raging bull as he headed right for me.
Chapter Seventeen
Micah
I finished yanking my shirt back over my head just as I reached her. “Inside. Now,” I ground out, but instead of waiting to see if she’d follow, my hand lashed out and gripped her arm. I all but dragged her up the path and into the house, slamming the back door with so much force the glass inside the frame rattled.
“Micah, what the hell?” Hayden yelped, trying to pull her arm from my grasp, but I held tight as I continued through the kitchen and down the hall.
I knew the layout of this house almost as well as I knew my own. Years of helping Sylvia out, making repairs whenever they were needed, had given me a perfect lay of the land. I knew Sylvia had moved her niece into the master bedroom, so I took the stairs at a clip so fast Hayden practically had to run to keep from tripping as I hauled us up them and down the hall toward her room.
She struggled against my hold, pulling at my hand the entire way, finally wrenching herself free once we cleared the doorway, but it was too late. Slamming the bedroom door closed, I stood between it and her so she had nowhere to run.
Her mouth opened and closed on a sputter before she finally managed to get her words out. “Have you lost your mind?” she shouted. “What the hell was that?”
“What was that?” I asked incredulously. “Are you fuckin’ serious?”
“Yes, I’m fuckin’ serious,” she threw back. “You just dragged me through the yard and into my house, making a scene in front of the whole freaking town for no damn good reason!”
I took a step toward her, planting my hands on my hips. “Oh I had a perfectly good reason for that scene down there, and you know it,” I seethed. “I told you to stay away from that guy, and you didn’t listen!”
“Oh my God,” she said on a bewildered laugh. “So that’s what this is about? You acted like an asshole in front of everyone because you’re jealous?” Her vibrant blue eyes flashed wildly as she threw her arms wide. “You’re unbelievable!”
“And you’re so goddamn stubborn it’s driving me insane,” I barked. With each step I took forward, she took one backward until she slammed into the wall across the room, leaving her with nowhere else to go. “I told you to stay the fuck away from him because that man’s dangerous, Hayden. I know him a whole hell of a lot better than you do. I’ve lived here a long time, and part of my job is reading people. So when I say to stay clear of someone, how about instead of throwin’ attitude, you pull your head out of your ass and actually listen to me!”
She pushed up on her tiptoes until her chest pressed flush against mine and her nose was only inches away. “Don’t tell me to get my head out of my ass!”
With that, the last tenuous threat of my control snapped. My hand shot out, tangling in the hair at the back of her head and holding it in place while I slammed my mouth down on hers.
Her lips parted instantly, her tongue flicking out to rub across mine. The kiss became a battle the moment it started, each of us fighting against the other for control. Using my knee, I forced her legs farther apart and wedged my hips between them, using my weight to keep her pressed against the wall as I ground my aching hard-on between her thighs.
I emitted a growl when her teeth clamped down on my bottom lip, biting hard enough that the sting made me pull back. Her eyes were glazed over, the blue nearly swallowed up by the black of her pupils. Her chest was heaving with each breath. She was just as aroused as I was, possibly more, but we weren’t soft or gentle when it came to taking our pleasure from each other.
“You’re such an asshole,” she panted before grabbing my hair and forcing my lips back to hers.
“And you’re a pain in my ass,” I grunted.
“Stop bossing me around,” she continued to argue between kisses.
“Then stop making stupid fucking decisions,” I ordered, pulling back. The small distance I put between us served two purposes. The first was so she’d know I was being serious, and the second was to make her wild by denying her what she wanted. “You stay the fuck away from Greg Cormack,” I clipped.
“Stop telling me what to do!”
I bent my knees, using the leverage to drive myself harder against her, forcing a moan past her swollen lips. “Twice now he’s touched what’s mine. There won’t be a third. Don’t put me in the position of doing something that’ll threaten my job, Red. ’Cause if his hands go anywhere near you again, I’m gonna break every one of his goddamn fingers.”
She let out a soft growl that I would’ve found adorable if it didn’t make me impossibly harder. “I hate you.” Despite her words, her hips rocked harder against mine while her delicate hands fisting at the material of my shirt to keep me close.
Grabbing her dress at her sides, I bunched it in my hands until, inch by inch, those long, seductive legs were uncovered. I got the material up past her hips, revealing her tiny lace panties.
“Fine by me. You can hate me all you want, as long as you do it with my cock inside you.”
Her back arched when I gently trailed my fingertips up her inner thigh. “Micah,” she said on a whimper as I brushed a feather-light touch against the scrap of material between her thighs. “Please.”