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Heavy footsteps pounded toward the stairs, and I sat up in bed. Why was Orin so pissed that I wasn’t in the room anymore? He said he didn’t want me to touch him. This was the best way to achieve that. His footfalls thundered back down the hall, and then he was standing in the doorway to the room, his large, bare chest pumping restlessly so that his tattoos writhed and danced over his skin.
“What are you doing in here?” he demanded in a soft growl.
I sat up properly. “I could ask the same of you.”
His jaw flexed. “You’re supposed to be sleeping in my room.”
I folded my arms across my chest and gave him a look. “You told me not to touch you.”
He glared at me, that same muscle in his jaw jumping. “You sleep in my room. With me. End of story.”
“You can’t tell me not to touch you then demand I come and sleep beside you. That makes no sense.”
Shaking his head, he marched forward muttering something about being a ridiculous woman and threw back the quilt in one swift movement. With one arm under my legs and the other around my back, he lifted me over his shoulder and returned to his room. I was too shocked to wriggle out, only remembering that I had this choice once we were back in his bedroom.
“Put me down!”
“Aye, I’ll put you down,” he grumbled, dumping me onto the bed.
I bounced off the mattress, then lay there, breathless for a moment, blinking up at him before scrambling into a sitting position.
Shoving the hair from my face, I seethed, “You think you can just manhandle me back in here? What if I don’twantto be here anymore.”
“You do.” He pointed at my protruding nipples.
I folded my arms. “It’s a biological response to stimuli.” I hurled the words he’d once said to me back at him, and the muscle in his jaw ticked. “I want to go back to the other room.”
“No, you don’t.”
Arrogant arse. “And why wouldn’t I? Being alone is better than dealing with you.”
There was a knock on the door. “Is everything all right in there?” Keir called.
“Fuck off!” Orin yelled while I called back, “Fine. Just dealing with this jackarse!”
Orin glowered at me. “Calling me names now?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” I replied sweetly.
“I should take you over my knee for that disobedience.”
Whether it was his words or the way his voice deepened, I didn’t know, but suddenly all bravado and bluster left me. My body flushed with heat. I wanted what he was threatening me with. I wanted it all, with him, but I couldn’t let him use sex as a distraction. I needed to know what the hell was going on in his head.
I sucked in a shallow breath and pleaded with my body to let my heart stop hammering so hard. “Not until you tell me what’s wrong. Why did you recoil when I was only trying to help you? Why did you push me away?”
If his glare before had been cold, it was downright arctic now. “Now isn’t the time for this.”
“Now is the perfect time for this,” I volleyed back. “I left to give you some space, and you come back into the room like a fucking tornado and physically move me back to your room. That’s messed up, Orin.”
“I am messed up, Fallon,” he replied in a mocking tone. “Haven’t you learned that yet?”
I knew. I’d learned the lesson. But that didn’t mean I was going to let him off without some sort of further explanation. “Not good enough. I want to know more than what you’re willing to show the world.”
“Why would you want that?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I yelled. “Haven’t I made myself perfectly obvious?”
This made him frown. “What? That you have a thing for killers?”
