Chapter 44 #2
I pause and then laugh until tears come to my eyes.
I didn’t anticipate that he could be funny.
Sexy, stubborn, and an asshole? Definitely.
But witty and charming? No. The man leaves me in a tailspin.
He brings daisies to his mother. He took care of me when I had terrible period cramps.
He continues to watch me, and when his eyes travel down to my plate of food, I sigh.
He’s worse than the teachers at the boarding school, who would demand you clean your plate before leaving breakfast. “You’re worse than the lunch matrons at my boarding school. ”
“Boarding school?”
“Yup. The Dana Hall School. ‘Amor Caritas.’”.
“Love and Charity,” he murmurs.
“You know Latin?”
“Among other things.”
“Something tells me other things mean, most things.” He raises an eyebrow at my words.
I want to confront him about knowing that he has a degree in Forensic Anthropology.
I want to ask him about his mother and learn what happened to get him convicted of manslaughter.
“Fine, don’t tell me about where you learned Latin. ”
“Is the school that where you learned all your prissy manners?”
My eye roll must be seen from heaven. “I’m not prissy.”
He shrugs, sipping his coffee, and I frown at his smirk. “What makes you think I’m prissy?”
“Maybe prissy’s not the right word. Proper. There’s something very proper about you. Safe. Something that tells me you don’t break the rules.”
There it is again. The subtle insult about me being boring. Reed insinuated the same thing. That I was boring. He claimed fucking me was like sleeping with a chair. “I break rules all the time. I’m breaking one right now aren’t I?”
He eases off the counter and heads toward me, leaning over the table until I have to crane my neck back. “Yeah? What rule is that?”
“Being here with you. I haven’t told my brother. Jace would kill me if he knew. He might even hurt you for fingering me. Twice.”
He doesn’t respond, but I catch the muscle moving in his cheek. “He could try.” His words could be taken in jest, but for some reason, I know he’s serious. I swallow. A fight between him and Jace would not be funny. I remember how they both acted at Silas’s wedding.
He gets up and pours more coffee, and suddenly I remember. “Shit! Jagger!”
“I already fed him.”
That makes me plop down in my seat. “Uh…You did?”
“Yeah. Gave him some donuts and cheese.”
“You what!?” I screech. My fork clatters on the plate. Stone laughs, bending at the waist. “You asshole! He can’t eat that!”
His bellows only get louder, and as much as he’s annoying me, I like the gruff sounds. His face is even sexier when he laughs, showing his teeth. “I’m serious, Stone! Jagger has a very specific organic diet!”
“So he’s prissy like you, huh?” My eyes roll again, and before I can correct him, he interrupts me. “Relax. I went to the pet store and got him some mealworms.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “You’re a jerk you know that?”
“No thank you, Countess? For feeding your precious pet?”
“Thank you. Asshole.”
He chuckles again. “You’re welcome. Brat.”
The teasing feels good. Different from what we’ve done before. This man is dangerous to my body and mind. Something teases at my brain about what he said. “When did you go? To the pet store?”
He observes me when I answer. “When you were asleep.”
I remember it. When Stone watched me from the doorway. Unspoken words between us. I wanted him to sleep with me again, hold me, and curl that big body around my much smaller one, but he left me there. “And how did you know what a beardie eats?”
“I have pets.”
“You do?” He looks at me funny, and I wonder why. He has a pet. I can’t picture him with one.
“Yeah. They are voracious eaters.”
“They?”
“Hmmm.”
He picks up his cup, and from the look on his face, he won’t elaborate. I hold in my sigh. “Aren’t you going to eat?” I ask around a bite of bacon.
“No.”
“Then it’s weird that you’re watching me.”
He slowly lowers his coffee cup. “You don’t like me watching you?”
Those dark orbs lock on me, and it should be unnerving, but I’m determined not to let him intimidate me.
Fine. He wants to watch me? I make sure to lick my lips after each bite, and his eyes follow my every move.
His watching feels good. I like his complete focus on me.
It reminds me of what Barry said about him watching his partners fuck each other.
“You like teasing, Countess?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t done it much,” I murmur. My voice sounds husky to my own ears. I pick up my own coffee and sip, hoping it helps my voice return to normal. The blaring sound of his phone breaks the spell between us. He doesn’t take his eyes off me as he answers in a gruff voice. “Stone.”
I see the second his body changes, getting more tense.
The easy, relaxed set of his shoulders disappears.
He listens raptly and nods. “Give me 20.” His voice is deadly.
My confusion increases when he simply gets up and walks away to another part of his apartment.
I watch his retreating back, wondering about the phone call.
Who is it? Whatever he heard pissed him off.
My appetite is gone now, and I push the remaining breakfast away and finish my lukewarm coffee.
Minutes later, he returns, and the first words out of his mouth piss me off. His face is closed off. There are no more hot, teasing looks.
“You need to go.”
“What?” I choke on the sip I just took. “Why?”
“Don’t ask questions. Let’s go.”
I narrow my eyes as he walks back to his room. When he returns, he tosses me clothing. I hold it up. It’s a pair of my sweats. “Where—?”
Stone doesn’t answer me and walks to me, grabbing my arm and forcibly pulling me along. He opens his door and brings me down the hallway until we reach my door. He opens it and walks me inside. He circles the small living room and looks out the window.
I stand in my small living room, confused. I follow him and watch in bewilderment as he checks my closet and what feels like every square inch of my apartment. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Are you leaving today?” He barks in my direction.
I blink at his question. “What do you mean?”
He stalks to me and grips my arm, hauling me up, right into his face. “Are you leaving the apartment today?” Fury radiates off him.
His hold hurts, and I try to connect the dots. “I—Uh, I have to go to the art supply store. I need groceries. I—”
“Cancel them all. Stay inside.”
“Now wait a freaking minute!” I bluster, tugging at my arm. “You can’t tell me what to do!”
When he brings me flush against his hard body, my mind explodes, my body reacts immediately, warming, my pussy getting slick.
His cock is hard, and it pushes into my stomach.
“Don’t test me, Camryn. Stay the apartment and out of sight.
Don’t stand near the windows. Don’t leave in your car, do you understand? ”
Each sentence makes goosebumps explode on my skin. Fear swirls in my belly. Something is wrong. “Just tell me why.”
Stone doesn’t answer me, but releases me and steps back. “Lock the door.”
Then he’s gone, leaving me with a thousand questions. There’s still so much I don’t know about him, things I want to know. I want to push him to answer me, tear down the boundaries he’s erecting. What secret is he hiding?