Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Jorja munched on a handful of what Remi had called anacardi nuts. “They are cashews.”
“Nope.” Remi kept his focus on work. “If you go into any store here and ask for cashews, they are going to look at you funny.”
“It’s Italy. They all clock me as a tourist and look at me funny.”
“True. You are a funny looking tourist. Maybe you should stay, and then you won’t be a tourist, just funny looking.”
She threw a nut at his head. “I’m going to ask someone to confirm the shit you are trying to sell me. Anawacky nuts, indeed.”
“Hah—” Remi cracked up laughing at her purposeful mangling of the word. The door slammed open, and Remi reached for the weapon she’d discovered was taped to the underside of his desk when she’d startled him by opening the door this morning. “Jeez, bro, what the hell bit your dick?”
Jorja started to smile at Gunnar, but it faded when she realized he looked mad as all get out. What the hell had he to be pissed for? If Gillian had called him again, she was going to lose her shit. Had that woman not learned her lessons?
“You.” Gunnar pointed to her then jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Outside, now.”
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Understanding dawned. His ex-wife hadn’t called again.
Nobody else had pissed him off, but for some stupid reason he was mad with her.
What the hell for? She hadn’t done anything that she could think of.
Hell, she’d even left him a note next to his freaking coffee machine telling him where she was going.
“Gun—”
“Shut it, Rem.” Gunnar pushed the door out and held it open for her.
Jorja balled her hands into fists and watched him warily as he paced back and forth, muttering under his breath. “Wha—”
He held up his hand, stopping her words in their tracks, and went back to pacing. Every couple of steps he looked at her and then went right back to freaking walking.
She was never going to understand men, especially not this one.
How was she supposed to know what was going on if he didn’t, you know, open his mouth and tell her?
She knew she’d done nothing wrong. He was still sleeping when she’d left.
Come to think of it, she also didn’t understand why Remi had been all kinds of stunned when she’d told him Gunnar would be a while as he was still sleeping.
Once he’d figured out it was her and not some terrorist entering the war-room, Remi had asked her to repeat what she’d said, then shrugged and gone back to work.
Jorja glared at Gunnar. Either he was going to start talking in the next thirty seconds flat, or she was going back to work. When he finally came to a stop in front of her, she quirked up an eyebrow. “Are you done?”
He squeezed his eyes shut as if she’d kneed him in the balls. “I’m not like this. What the fuck was I thinking?” He turned away from her and she just knew he was going to walk off without giving her any explanation.
Jerk!
What was a girl supposed to do when the man who could melt her panties off with just one look acted like an idiot for some unknown reason? Call him on his crap… that’s what she could do. She yelled after his retreating back. “You’re a jerk, Gunnar McKinley. A jerk.”
He spun around mid-step and stalked toward her. This time she wasn’t backing off. She stood her ground with her hands on her hips and glared at him.
He picked her up, pushed her against the wall next to the war-room door, and stared down at her for one long heartbeat as their breaths mingled. Jorja almost forgot how to do basic things, like remembering how to take air into her lungs.
“Fuck it,” Gunnar muttered harshly and slammed his lips down onto hers.
This kiss wasn’t soft or gentle. It stole her ability to think.
It consumed, claimed, and set fire to her soul.
Gunnar kissed her until he drowned the rage of moments ago, then he placed her back on her feet, straightened her rumpled clothes, and turned her around to face the door.
He growled low and deep in her ear, making her shiver.
“I’m sorry.
“I was an asshole.
“But you… being around you is making me insane, and I have lost my fucking patience or my mind. Maybe both.”
“Then find them, Gunnar, because I will not tolerate this kind of shit from you.” Just because his kisses were the sins mommas warned their daughters of didn’t mean she wouldn’t stand up for herself.
“Dish that crap out to anyone else if it pleases you. But I will not take it. Got it?” She tugged herself free of his grasp, yanked open the door, and stormed into the war-room.
Why the hell couldn’t they have a door which just opened inward like normal people?
She spun around, grabbed the door handle, and slammed it shut behind her, hard enough that everything shook, stopping Remi’s teasing laughter in its tracks.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t, just don’t. Your brother is a jerk.”
“You are only figuring that out now?” Remi asked.
“We all could have told you that he’s an asshole.
He has to be to do the jobs he does.” He scrubbed a hand over his head as if trying to decide if he should say whatever other nugget of thrilling information he had in his head before continuing, “And it turns you on, or you wouldn’t be in here hissing like an angry cat. ”
She hated that he was right. But she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of saying it. “Shut up.”
“Hah.”
“It’s a good thing I think I like you.” Did liking him mean she couldn’t lose her shit on him? She didn’t think so, but she settled for warning him of what could happen if she forgot to keep a rein on her temper. “Or I’d freaking dump this coffee all over your keyboard.”
Remi immediately wrapped an arm around his keyboard and leaned over it, protecting it from abuse via coffee.
“Don’t you dare. And to think I was going to offer you a full-time job,” he muttered more to himself than to her.
“Damn it, why are the ones who are good at computers always more batshit than I am?” But there was no heat behind it, and she could see the smile in his eyes.
Was this what was missing all along from the life she had built for herself?
Friends?
A family which included siblings and wasn’t just her and her mom?
Jorja shook herself. Why was she asking herself that? She’d be driven crazy by the end of the week. She snorted out a laugh and once she started, she couldn’t stop and laughed like a loon until her belly hurt and her breath sawed in and out of her lungs. Heck, maybe she was crazy already.
“Go.” Remi pointed to the door. “Get out. Go lay by the pool or do something else, because you aren’t touching my computers any more today.
That laugh tells me cray-cray mode has been activated, and you aren’t fucking up my systems.” He stood up and opened the door, waving out it with his other arm. “Out, pool or something, shoo.”
She looked from Remi to the door and back again, but did as he asked and walked out of the war-room. When the door closed, barely missing her nose, she stared at it in shock.
How the hell did this happen?
Did she really just get thrown out? She tried the door. “It’s locked. Jerk must run in the family.” She raised her fist and hammered on the door.
“I’m not letting you back in until you’ve asked to ship you a batch of non-crazy pants!” Remi yelled. “Because clearly you lost yours between Pisa and here.”
Well, if he wanted her to go to the pool, then she’d go to the freaking pool.
One problem though, she didn’t know where the pool was, or even if they actually had one.
“You have a pool?” she yelled through the door.
“Where is it?” Because she’d only get herself in more trouble if she went looking for it by herself.
“Yup,” Remi called back. “Go through the archway at the end of the courtyard. It’s ‘round the corner of the house to the left. Gunnar’s house is unlocked if you need to grab shit to wear. If not, the pool will be empty at this time of the day, so nobody will see you skinny dipping.”
She rolled her eyes. Just let him wait, she’d think of a way to pay him back for that.
Jorja stomped across the courtyard and up into the apartment to grab her swimsuit.
“It’s a good thing I brought one. It would serve them all right if they needed bleach for their eyeballs after finding me skinny dipping in their pool. ”
Thank God, I remembered to pack one.
Although now as she pulled it on, she debated if it was too skimpy for here.
If it’s fine for a public beach, it’s fine for here.
She put shorts and a tee on over it, then grabbed a towel and her Kindle.
For a second, she considered how she was going to bring everything to the pool, then remembered the tote she’d stuffed into the pocket of her case.
Her Riley Edwards’ ‘Be A Rebel’ tote would be the perfect size.
After a quick stop in the kitchen, she added some snacks and water before going back to the bedroom to grab her flip-flops and a pair of oversized shades.
She made sure to close the door behind her and turned right, going under the archway which let her into another terrace with a lawn and a large driveway.
I could walk straight down and out onto the street; nobody would even notice I was gone.
She could… but she wouldn’t. A deal was a deal, after all.
She followed Remi’s directions around the corner of the building and found a gate blocking her way.
Thankfully it wasn’t locked, and she found herself in a beautiful, peaceful garden with a huge Olympic-sized pool in the center of it.
She dropped her tote on a deck chair and kicked off her flip-flops. “Wow.”
After dipping her toe in the water, she decided it was just what the doctor ordered on a hot summer’s day, shucking her shorts and t-shirt off before slipping into the pool.
She wasn’t the best swimmer on the planet, but she managed to swim a few laps before grabbing her sunglasses from where she’d abandoned them near her flops at the edge of the pool and flipping over on her back to float.
This is the life!
I could get so used to this.
But even as a shadow drifted across the sky blocking out the heat of the sun, she knew she’d have to go back to her old life soon enough. Maybe she should treat staying here like an all-inclusive resort vacation.
With her eyes closed she floated, the peace and quiet helping her to process the events of the last few days. When the cloud which was filtering the sun didn’t move, she opened her eyes to glare up at it.
Rude.
The sound of a throat clearing nearly drowned her when she lost her concentration on floating and she floundered, splashing wildly for a second before she was able to get her bearings again. “That was mean,” she grumbled.
Colt McKinley sat on the end of one of the sun loungers, glowering at her. At least he waited until she was floating again before he came closer to squat near the edge of the pool. “If you’re just fucking with Gunnar, stop it right now,” he ordered.
Whoa, hello left field.
Well, wasn’t this a first? Being warned to be nice to a man by his brother. So much for a relaxing afternoon. She’d have to remember to tell Remi he was incorrect about nobody bothering her at the pool. “Excuse me?”
Colt pinned her with a stare. “I’m only going to say this once. It’s up to you if you want to heed me or not. If you hurt him, there is no place you can hide from me.”
“Me hurt him?” If he could share what he’d been smoking, that would be flipping awesome. “Don’t you mean the other way around?”
“No.” Colt’s reply was quiet. “Gunnar’s got the softest heart of any warrior I know. He might not look like it, but he has. If you are fucking with what’s left of that heart, you answer to me. Understand?”
He didn’t bother to wait for a reply, but stood and stalked away.
“Being a jerk really does run in that family.” She shifted her sunglasses up her nose, and then she spotted Talon and Zombie watching her from the shadows of the trees surrounding the garden.
Oh, goodie. Here we go again.
“I suppose you have something to say too,” she called. “Well, get it over with, while you all are on a roll.”
Talon watched her silently for a moment before he shook his head, and he and Zombie disappeared through the trees.
“Jeez, it’s a good thing I wasn’t skinny dipping. There’ll be nobody at the pool at this time of day. Remi is an asshole too.”
Laughter answered, and once again she floundered in the water before managing not to swallow the whole pool and getting her floating balance back. “Damn it.”
“Sorry, Ma’am. I’m Zorro.” The operator came closer to the edge of the pool. “They are protective of each other. Don’t fuck it up.” He nodded to her once and walked toward where Talon and Zombie had been a few minutes before.
“Anyone else?” she called. “Because if anyone else has something to say…” When only silence filled the air, she huffed in annoyance and went back to floating in the pool.
Maybe the water would help clear her mind, because the idea that she could hurt Gunnar’s heart was so freaking laughable it wasn’t even funny.
Ten more minutes. If I can get ten more minutes, then I’ll get out and read my Kindle for a bit. I have to find out what happens at the end of Blue Team.
She already knew there was no way Riley Edwards didn’t have at least a couple of more twists and turns to go, putting her readers through the wringer before she provided the swooniest happily ever after on the planet.
If only real life was like the pages of a book.
If wishes were horses…
Yeah, I don’t have a horse either, so I’d be walking either way.