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Just the idea of food made him grimace. He went to the fridge and pulled out a beer. “No. I think I’ll start with this.”
“Already?”
The irritation in her voice nearly made him snap back, but he managed to overcome that impulse. “It takes the edge off.”
She fell silent as she finished the bacon, made toast, and created a BLT.
“Did your brother get in okay?” he asked when she brought it to the table.
“Yeah.”
“How does he like the hotel?”
Her chair scraped the floor as she pulled it out. “It’s comfortable there.”
Was she mad that Jack hadn’t been invited to stay in the cottage?
After popping the top of his beer, he took a long drink and sank into the chair across from her. “What are your plans for today? Any chance you’d like me to show you around? Jack could come along if he wants.”
She opened her mouth to respond but gave him another hostile look instead.
“Is something wrong?” he asked. “Because you’re acting like you’re upset.”
She’d just picked up her sandwich. At this, she lowered it again. “I am upset. What do you think you were doing last night?”
He spread his hands to show she had him at a loss. “You mean...besides drinking?”
“Someone tried to get into my room in the middle of the night. It could only have been you.”
“Itwasme,” he said.
She seemed taken aback that he’d admit it so readily.“Why?”
“I couldn’t sleep. I was just going to peek in and make sure you were back safe.”
“Peek into my bedroom? That’s an invasion of my privacy, Bastian!”
With a wince at the caustic edge in her voice, he put up a hand to ask her to keep it down. “I’m sorry. I hadn’t heard you come in, so I was worried. But when I found the door locked, I knew you must’ve made it home safely and went back to bed.”
She gaped at him as if she didn’t quite know how to respond. “What if I’d been undressed?”
“It was the middle of the night, Ismay! I knew you’d be covered.”
“And if I wasn’t?” she persisted.
“It was dark! How much would I be able to see? I wasn’t being a lecherous bastard. I was just going to make sure there was a human-sized lump in the bed!”
She sighed and seemed to relax. “Don’t check on me like that in the future.”
“Okay, but... I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you while I’m here.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
He hadn’t seen any real fire in her before, but he liked it. A good challenge was always more tantalizing.
“You could’ve checked the garage for the Jeep...” she continued.
“You wanted me to go outside to look in the garage at three thirty in the morning?”
