Offensive Behavior

Just, yeah. No explanation. She didn’t even get a head turn out of him. “Could you look at me, please?”

A slight swivel of his chair, a quarter turn of his head, then he focused on his screen again. “I’ll take you back to the apartment whenever you’re ready, or wherever you want to go.”

“Are you sulking?” He closed his eyes.

“I’m giving you space to do what you need to do.”

“You sulked at Lucky’s for a month. You’re sulking now because,” she flapped her arm. “I don’t know why, but that’s what you’re doing. I shouldn’t want to kiss you when you’re sulking but I do.” And what was that about? Possibly something to do with how miserable he looked. “I’m not going to because it will reward the behavior and you’re better than that.”

Now she got his eyes. She got a despairing sigh. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. You’re upset and I’m not good with that. I’ll say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing. Make whatever just happened worse.”

“Last night you knew what to do. What’s changed?”

“Last night you told me what to do.”

And in bed he’d surprised and delighted her when she’d expected him to simply use her body to please himself.

“That was all you, last night, and it was pretty damn wonderful.”

A grudging smile played at the corner of his mouth.

“And you know it.”

“I know it.”

No smile to soften that. Arrogant. She still wanted to kiss him, because he wore this uncertainty like it might smother him. “So what’s this about?”

“I thought you might cry or, I don’t know. But you made it clear you don’t need me.”

“I was disappointed to wake up alone.”

His head shot around. His frown deepened.

“I don’t need you to save me, Reid, but you can be my friend as well as my lover.”

“Ah. So.” He stood abruptly, his chair skating across the floor a little way. “You and me, we’re all right.”

“I could eat a horse, and I’m pissed off about the fire and not knowing what happens next, but unless you keep sulking, you and me are totally fine.”

“I want to kiss you.” He still looked like this whole thing was a problem he needed to manage and didn’t have the skill for it.

She bent down and put her empty mug on the floor. Then she ran, laughing at the quick blink of disbelief she got before she heard him come after her. She wasn’t going far and she intended to get caught, but not without a good show. When he cornered her near the TV she used the back of his new sofa as a vault and got around him. She earned a laugh for that, deep and warm, wiping out his uncertainty, replacing it with the hunger she’d seen in his face when he’d been parked outside Lucky’s. She like that look on him. She loved it was directed at her. She stopped dodging him and let him nab her arm, drag her into his body and drop his head so they could kiss.

He rested his forehead on hers. “I’ve been known to sulk. Retreat. I get the hell out of Dodge when things get tricky.”

“And by tricky do you mean emotional?”

He nodded. “I’m good at upsetting people. I’m not good at knowing what to do when that happens.”

She wound her arms around his neck. “You didn’t upset me.”

“But the fire, what you lost and you don’t want me to help.”

“I don’t need you to help. There’s a difference.”

He sighed. “Too subtle for me.”

She stood on her toes, walked onto his feet and pulled on his neck. She fastened onto his lips in the most unsubtle way she knew how and made it clear she was still into him.