"Oh, um," I said, chancing a look at Repo whose chopping had stopped. It had stopped because he had turned to look at me, brow raised, waiting to hear the next lie out of my mouth. "Yeah. I'm just all stuffy," I said, waving a hand dismissively.
"Yeah," Repo said, his lips twitching, "that must be it." With that, he went back to doing whatever the heck he was doing that required so much cutting.
"You back on tonight?" Duke asked, sitting back in his chair the way only men did: legs wide, upper back against the chair, the rest detached, chest puffed out slightly.
"Ah I don't see why..."
"No," Repo cut me off.
Both Duke and I looked over, but Repo wasn't facing us. "I'm better now," I pressed.
"For what? An hour? Don't get cocky, probie. We need men on guard who can stay conscious for their shift. Until we're sure that's you, you're grounded."
I straightened, opening my mouth to object when Duke's raised hand caught my eye. When I looked over, he shook his head at me. I didn't need all that man-training K put me through to know he was warning me to shut the fuck up before I said something to get myself kicked out. Knowing he was right and there was nothing I could do, I stood up fast enough for my chair to turn over, drawing Repo's attention. But he said nothing and I stormed out of the kitchen. I ignored the presence of Wolf and Vin in the great room and threw myself outside, tearing across the field until the fence stopped me. I turned to the tree, taking a deep breath and jumping up to grab the lowest branch, pulling myself up.
It was a weird habit I picked up after my grandmother took me in as a kid. Growing up in the city, there generally weren't many trees around, let alone ones strong enough to climb. But when my mom was in a mood and I couldn't take it anymore, I climbed out the window and took up the fire escape until I hit the roof of whatever apartment building we were living in at the time. At my grandmother's in Vermont, there weren't fire escapes. But there was still an adult on my case about something every once in a while and my desire to run away from it. Given that we lived in a little Victorian in the woods, there were plenty of old, sturdy trees around. So when my grandmother started in on me, I would go out in the yard and climb a tree, often not coming in until it was dark and my growling stomach made me finally come down and find food.
Maybe it was immature.
But, the fact of the matter was, I had no privacy anywhere else at the compound. Someone always seemed to be in their bunks. Or in Renny's case, his recliner. The great room was always packed. And we weren't supposed to leave without permission. I knew I'd never get that. So the only thing I could do was get up and above it all for a little bit. I needed time to calm down and get my head together. Seeing as I was apparently 'grounded' until I proved I wasn't some pansy-assed weakling, there was no reason for me to even be in the compound. Technically, if we weren't directly given a job to do, we were free to do whatever the hell we wanted as long as we stayed on the grounds. I was on the grounds. So no one could say shit about it.
So what if Repo kissed me? And so what if it rocked my world a little bit? It was a kiss. A kiss was nothing. We were both adults. We also both understood how things were. He had even said it was best that we ignored what was between us.
I needed to stop being such a girl about it.
It was nothing.
The only reason it happened was because he was on some mission to prove I wanted him. It was an ego thing. Which, the more I thought about it, the more angry I got. What a shitty thing to do. The jackass.
I had worked myself up into what I thought was a righteous anger by the time I heard a throat clearing beneath me, surprising me enough to make me jump and almost pitch forward before my hands slammed down to steady myself.
It was him.
Of course it was.
Who the hell else would it be?
"You done sulking, Maze?"
Oh, the bastard.
"I'm not sulking. I'm sitting up here so I don't rip your fucking head off."
Repo's brow raised but he didn't call me on the threat. "You're kinda cute when you're offended."
"You're kind of an asshole all the time." That was another lie. In general, he was actually a pretty nice guy. I mean he'd nursed me when I was sick. How many women could claim to have a guy do that for them?