Chasing Serenity (River Rain 1)

“I think at this juncture, doll, you might want to ask yourself why you’re so curious about what I’m in the habit of doing. So curious about it, you’re detaining me with this conversation and won’t let me get on with my workday.”

Definitely, she’d been pissed.

Now she was furious.

“Are you inferring…?”

She was too angry to finish that.

He still answered it.

“Not sure I need to infer anything. I had somewhere to go, and I was intent to get there. Now,” he swept a hand to indicate the floor between them, “I’m standing here having a ludicrous conversation with you.”

“What’s your name?” she snapped.

“Judge,” he informed her easily.

She planted both hands on her hips, fingers wrapping around her more than likely three-hundred-dollar jeans.

Long, slender fingers with perfectly rounded nails tipped in a rich wine color which was probably what her mouth tasted like.

Shit.

He was enjoying this.

Which was why he really needed to walk away.

He didn’t walk away.

“Well, isn’t your name apropos?” she asked acidly.

Judge did a one-shoulder shrug.

Her eyes caught fire.

And her voice was rising. “Are you serious?”

“Calm down,” he said softly.

“You’re telling me to calm down when you just accused me of being some frivolous female who’d rather walk on diamonds than fund school lunches?”

Her voice definitely had risen now, as had her drama, the latter significantly.

And okay…

She was something.

He needed to walk away.

He still did not walk away.

Instead, he smirked.

He then watched, and enjoyed the show, as she took in his smirk, and behind those beautiful eyes, her head exploded.

“That isn’t even close to what I said,” he pointed out.

“Are you now correcting me?” she yelled.

And that was when Judge got concerned.

Because she was beautiful, even more when she was riled, but it was hitting him that, from the beginning, her reaction seemed extreme.

Was she just some privileged chick having a hissy fit?

Or was there something else going on?

Like, why was a family friend staying with Duncan?

Was his ex-wife up to her shit again?

“Seriously,” he said quietly. “Calm down.”

Bending at the waist, she leaned his way. “You must be old enough to know never to say that to an aggravated woman.” She leaned back. “Or a non-aggravated one for that matter.”

Why would he say that to a non-aggravated one?

He didn’t ask that question.

He got closer to her, realizing something else. They were gathering an audience.

He kept speaking quietly when he said, “You’re not aggravated, honey. You’re ticked. You okay?”

“Don’t ask me if I’m okay after you behaved like an absolute ass to me.”

“Yes, I did, and I apologized, and you’re drawing this out for some reason and I just want to know if you’re all right.”

“I was fine until you messed up my day.”

“Well, you’re not fine now.”

“And you made me that way.”

“By saying ‘nice booties’?”

“It wasn’t the words, it was the tone, and you know it.”

“I do, and I apologized for it.”

“It shouldn’t have been said in the first place.”

“I know that, hence the apology.”

“I hope those two words were worth it, since it might mean your job,” she snapped.

He stood still and stared down at her.

She was tall, even in stocking feet, which was what she was in right now.

Though, if she was wearing her fancy booties, he’d still be taller than her.

But he wasn’t thinking of something he’d normally be thinking of as he noted her height standing that close to a woman like her.

How the drop would be the perfect distance for kissing her.

He was thinking she was going to tell Duncan about their ridiculous conversation and get him in shit.

He loved his job, lived for it.

So that couldn’t happen.

“I said two words,” he growled.

This time, she got closer to him.

A lot closer.

“You were being an asshole intent on making some point about how I live my life, and it is not okay.”

An asshole?

Saying two words?

“Listen, sweetheart, if you’ve got some issue with how you live your life, don’t work that out with me.”

“I have utterly no qualms with the way I live my life,” she returned.

“If that was the case, the two words I said wouldn’t have triggered you into an overblown reaction,” he retorted.

Her chin shot back into her neck. “Overblown?”

“We’re standing here still discussing your reaction to two words.”

“Just because you have one doesn’t mean you get to wander around being one to hapless females,” she shot back.

He one hundred percent caught her drift.

“Now you’ve called me an asshole and a dick over two words,” he rumbled.

“I didn’t call you a dick.”

He used what she’d said earlier against her. “You inferred it.”

With that, she tossed her hair.

The woman tossed her hair.

And her doing that only made him want to sink his fingers into that thick, glossy mane.

For fuck’s sake.

“I call them as I see them,” she sniped.

“Nice,” he bit off.

She got even closer, so close, he could smell her perfume.

Bright and flowery, but also spicy.