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His friend nods, sated. “Who is she then?”
One second.
Two seconds.
Three.
I cock my eyebrow at Tate and he narrows his eyes.
“She’s living here whilst we do her refurb.”
I smile like the smug little bitch that I am. I feel like I just won an argument.
His friend looks back at me. “I’m Caulder. You legal?”
Tate spins around. “What did you just say?”
Caulder laughs and takes a sip from his bottle, eyes glinting playfully. “We should see if she wants to come down for a drink is all.”
In the space of one second Tate starts ascending the stairs looking like a serial killer. I instantly start walking backwards, double-speed, and we reach the back of the landing at almost the exact same moment.
“What are you doing?” I ask, breathless with confusion.
He’s ushering me without touching me, the demand radiating from his exposed skin. I acquiesce partially because I don’t want to get trampled, but also because I’m the same height as his solid pectorals and this arrangement gives me time to perv.
“You’re going upstairs.”
I reply “I am upstairs” because I’m a wise-ass.
“You’re goingup-upstairs.”
“What if I want a drink?”
I stop abruptly at the bottom of the attic stairwell and he has to catch himself on the frame of the entryway to prevent us from toppling body-into-body.
Tate is blazing with frustration when he looks down at me. “You’re not having one. I’m going to make everyone leave. I didn’t know that you were home tonight.”
Back to the ushering.
“Stop herding me,” I grit out, irritated. When I get no response, I choose violence. “Are you inviting girls over or something? Having an orgy on the sofa? Some saint you are. I expect a fucking deep clean by tomorrow morning.”
His voice is rougher than gravel. “You want a deep clean?”
This time when I whip around to face him he actually does crash into me. His chest knocks against my left shoulder, but before I can stumble backwards he hooks his right arm around my waist to prevent the fall.
There is a heart-stopping split-second wherein we look at each other, wide eyed, in disbelief over the past five seconds. That he just said that. That our bodies are touching again. It isn’t even skin on skin but I feel his rigidity and heat seeping through the fabric of my top. My glasses are slipping down my nose so I shove them back up with a shaking hand.
Then I’m furious.
I bend my arms up and thrust my elbows into his chest, hard. He doesn’t budge but I manage to claw my way out of his arms anyway. I’m sprinting up the stairs and my heart is thundering in my chest because I can hear him racing on my tail. I push into my room and purposefully spin around so that I can look at him whilst I slam the door in his face but he drives his arm out, stopping it.
“You can’t come in here,” I say quickly, and I raise aso-thereeyebrow at him.
He glances over my shoulder. “I like what you’ve done with the place.”
He knows that I haven’t changed a damn thing since he was last here. I narrow my eyes on him.
“Thanks. Your visitation’s over now. Tell Caulder I said hi.”
