LITMIR.BIZ

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stunned. “She’s pregnant?”

      He shook his head. “Not yet. But they’re hoping she will be soon and wanted to get a head start on things.”

      “Oh. I...I didn’t know.”

      As if he knew exactly what she was thinking, he said, “They only just decided this week to start on the nursery, or I’m sure she would have told you.”

      She chewed on the corner of her lip. “I can always sleep on their sofa.”

      Zoing! His right brow arched again, as if it was spring-loaded, those dark eyes starting to glitter with a spark of humor, as if he were beginning to find something funny in her belligerent desperation. “When I have a perfectly good spare bedroom? I don’t think so.”

      She was so frustrated she wanted to scream. “Who cares what you think, you arrogant ass? I do not take orders from you! Why can’t you just leave me the hell alone and stop trying to control me?”

      Hmm. Maybe yelling at him again wasn’t the best idea she’d ever had. He suddenly wasn’t looking as if he still found this funny, the muscle pulsing in his jaw telling her he was done with this particular argument. “I’m not interested in controlling you. I’m just trying to keep you the fuck alive. So pack your goddamn bag and start acting like an adult instead of a stubborn child. Carla and I will drive you down and she can help you get settled.”

      “Carla? Are you two bunking up together now?”

      Carla snorted from her position in the doorway, making Elise flinch, since she’d somehow forgotten the female Runner was standing there. “You think I’m gonna live with that jackass?” The blonde laughed under her breath, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. “I’m not that crazy!”

      Elise looked to Wyatt for an explanation. With a shrug, he said, “I just thought it might make you more comfortable to know that she’ll be around a lot. Her cabin is right next door to mine.”

      “But we are not an item,” Carla added, shuddering. “I love the guy, but I don’t want you putting any sick images in my head. I’ll be scarred for life.”

      It was dizzying, how she could go from being so pissed off one moment to wanting to bang her head against a freaking wall in the next. Glancing from one Runner to the other with a look of pure, disgruntled confusion, she said, “You two are so weird.”

      “Yeah, we get that a lot.” Carla laughed.

      At the same time, Wyatt growled, “Can we get a damn move on?”

      When Elise simply remained where she was standing, he exhaled a short, exasperated breath. “Stop wasting time, El. If you don’t come with me, then I’m moving in here. Which is it gonna be?”

      “Fine,” she snapped, making it sound like another sharp four-letter F word. “I’ll pack a bag, Dad.”

      He ran his tongue over the front of his teeth, but didn’t call her out on her snotty attitude. Instead, he simply said, “Good. And make sure you pack enough.”

      “Enough for what?” she asked, already walking toward her closet.

      “A few weeks, at least.”

      Oh, hell no. “A few weeks?” she growled, spinning toward him with another furious scowl. “Are you insane?”

      “Getting there,” he muttered, heading for the door, the motion making all those mouthwatering muscles do interesting things under his tight, burnished skin. Even his freaking back was gorgeous, which just struck her as incredibly unfair. “If you want to argue about it, save it for the Alley,” he said over his shoulder. “Right now we need to get the hell out of here.”

      “Why?” she whispered, his gritty words making the fear she’d been fighting down start to rise right back up. She licked her lips, struggling to stay calm, but it felt like a losing battle. “You don’t think they’re coming back, do you?”

      “I don’t know what to think, Elise. But it’s better to be safe than sorry. And you’ll be a hell of a lot safer there than you are here.”

      With her pulse pounding in her ears, Elise watched him leave the room, thinking he was probably right about her physical well-being.

      She just wasn’t too sure about the rest of her.

      Chapter 4

      After getting a still-irritated, snippy Elise settled in his spare bedroom, Wyatt grabbed a T-shirt and then walked back to the cabin’s living room, where Carla waited for him in one of the leather chairs that sat across from his sofa. Too on edge to sit down, he made his way over to the empty fireplace, crossing his arms over his chest as he braced his back against the mantel.

      “What?” he grunted, since his partner was staring at him with a bemused expression on her face.

      “Nothing,” she murmured.

      Choking back a groan, he said, “I’m tired and in a shitty mood, Reyes. So, please, just spit it out.”

      She coughed to clear her throat, then shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s just that you’re not usually this tense, Pall. You look ready to crack.”

      He shrugged, not knowing what to say.

      “So what’s going on with you two?” she asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

      “Don’t know.” He rubbed his jaw as he glanced at the bottle of whiskey that sat on the sideboard against the far wall. Rolling his shoulder in a restless gesture, he kept his voice low as he said, “I want her. But I’m worried about her, too. So I’ll put the other on the back burner for the time being and help her deal with whatever’s going on.”

      “You want her how?” Carla questioned.

      He arched a brow. “How do you think?” His tone was dry.

      Not one to mince words, his partner asked, “You’re just looking for sex?”

      Wyatt scowled. “Do we really need to have this conversation? Because not to sound juvenile or anything, but it’s kinda freaking me out, seeing as how you’re one of the closest things to family I still have. And I sure as hell wouldn’t talk about my sex life with my sister, if I had one.”

      “Yeah, I get that. And I’m sorry about the ick factor. You know I love you—but I like Elise, too.” A notch started to form between her pale brows, just visible beneath the edge of her bangs. “I don’t want to see her get hurt if you’re only looking to get laid.”

      “I’m not going to break her heart,” he muttered, shoving a hand back through his hair in a telling act of frustration. “Hell, a woman like her would never fall for a guy like me in the first place. But it doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun together.”

      The notch on her forehead got deeper. “What do you mean by ‘a guy like me’? What’s wrong with you?”

      “Nothing,” he grunted. “Just drop it.”

      She didn’t respond right away. She just sat there staring at him from the edge of her seat, studying him, making him feel like a bug pinned down under a microscope. He didn’t care for the feeling. And now he really wanted that damn drink. Heading over to the sideboard, he poured more than a little whiskey into a glass, then walked back and took a seat on the sofa.

      “Gee, thanks for offering me one, too,” she drawled wryly. “And you know what I think? I think you’re full of bullshit.” He started to argue, but she cut him off. “And you’re blind if you don’t think that Elise is interested in you. Like really interested. Yeah, she’s skittish. She has good reason to be. But when you’re not looking at her, she’s watching you. She can’t keep her eyes off you.”

      A wave of heat swept through his insides, and it didn’t have a damn thing to do with the mouthful of whiskey he’d just downed.

      “Whoa!”

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