He tilted his chin. “Not exactly, but if you’re looking for something to take your shit out on, leave the tree alone.”
“And take it out on you?”
“Yes.” I watched him for a moment, my eyes going directly to his brown lips for a second for God knows what reason before I ripped them back up to his eyes. He smirked, adding, “I promise I can take it.”
It might have been the strange heat his gaze suddenly possessed or the declaration that he’d take my wrath, but somehow his offer seemed brazen, my body heating at the possibility of it.
Not the angry kind of heat, either.
Actually, all the anger had already dissipated from me, leaving me in a state of frustrated dumbfoundedness as I looked at him blocking the tree. Defending a tree…
Lowering my leg back to the ground, I crossed my arms over my chest and I looked away.This was ridiculous.
“I couldn’t hurt you,” I said.
“Why not?” he asked. And it was such a strange question that I found my gaze back on him.
“Because it’d be wrong.”
He nodded, though it didn’t seem like he was agreeing exactly. “I thought you said you weren’t a saint, Alta.”
“Yeah, I’m not a psycho either.”
He hummed, a corner of his mouth raising as if he couldn’t contain it. “Could’ve fooled me.”
My eye twitched. But despite being annoyed at him basically calling me crazy, I also wasn’t going to sit here and argue the right to kick him. I’d never do that to a person, I couldn’t even do it to a tree.
“I’m not hitting you, Harper. You can forget about it,” I said, the shortening of his name just slipping out with my denial. I sometimes did it in my head but never used it so informally out loud before.
He nodded, seeing the reason in that, at least. But apparentlythat didn’t matter judging by his next words. “You know, hurting me isn’t the only way to use me, right?”
What?
My throat went so dry as I blinked at him rapidly. Suddenly, I was assaulted with the sight of his muscled biceps, and broad chest, and the image of what his abs might look like underneath his shirt. This wasn’t the first time I’d noticed his size, tall and broad, his legs thick like he worked them out religiously. And don’t even get me started on that face…
I snapped myself out of it with a startled cough as I took a massive step back. I doubt any of that had a thing to do with what he meant by… whatever he’d just said.
Nope.
No way, José.
Looking up to his face again, I caught him raising an eyebrow. “Okay there, Boss?”
“Fine, thanks.” I straightened my shoulders, my voice coming out hoarse.
Standing in front of me, he ran his eyes along the contours of my face.
“Alright,” he said slowly. “Well, if you’re done with your crazy for the day, you wanna come inside?”
I looked around at the dead street. “I’m still early.”
“Yeah, but it’s freezing out today,” he said. “C’mon, no one has any appointments. You can get your shit together before anyone else shows up.”
He pushed off the tree and held out an arm in the direction of the shop, waiting for me to turn in that direction too. From the corner of my eye, I took him in as we walked. For the first time since he showed up, I realized he wasn’t wearing a jacket either. And he had one glove on, as if he’d been in the middle of working on something when he came out here. Had he been busy?
In a soft, embarrassed voice, I asked. “You saw me out here?”
He looked down his shoulder at me. “Yeah.”
