“Hold up,” I growl, trying to go over everything she’s saying, and it all comes out to two specific answers that I can’t believe. “You think I’m gay?”
“I…Well, isn’t that what you meant about this Judd guy.”
“No. Judd is my friend. We worked together. We do not, nor have we ever shared a bed.”
“Oh,” she breathes. “Good to know.”
“I don’t swing that way. Hell, I don’t swing either way now.”
“What does… Are you a priest?”
I blink, my face set in shock, staring at the crazy woman in front of me, unable to fathom how she managed to even go there.
“Do I look like a priest?”
“No, well I’m not catholic, so I can’t say, but you don’t look like a priest that I’ve seen on television.”
“I’m not a priest,” I snap, shaking my head.
“You’re not?”
“No! Why would you think that?”
“You don’t have to get angry. You’re the one who implied you didn’t like sex with men or women. What else was I supposed to think?”
“Are you deliberately trying to piss me off?”
She takes a heaving sigh and looks up at me, like I’ve annoyed the hell out of her.
“I’m beginning to think all I have to do is breathe to annoy you.”
“Finally, you got something right,” I snarl.
“Okay so you’re not a priest, you’re celibate. I know you didn’t ask for advice—”
“That’s right, I didn’t.”
“Well, I’m going to offer it to you anyway,” she huffs. “A good-looking guy like you who hasn’t married himself off to the Lord, needs to get him a little somethin’-somethin’. It’s not natural not to and honestly it will probably turn you into a grouchy bear that people dread to be alone with.”
“Good-looking?” I question, immediately suspicious.
“Yeah. Anyway, I know you probably won’t listen to me, but the next time you meet up with Judd, maybe just plant one on him and see where it goes.”
“I don’t know what you think you’re achieving here, but you need to stop it.”
“Now, you’re speaking in riddles.”
“What kind of game do you think you’re playing, lady?”
“Game?”
“Trying to act like you’re attracted to me. Do you think I’m stupid?”
“Whoa! Full of yourself much? I said you were good-looking, not that I was attracted to you. I mean sure you have a hot body and your hair is sexy. Maybe I’ve wondered what it would feel like to feel it against my body. And sure, you’ve got that dark, broody sex-on-a-stick vibe going for you and you work it.
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath, wondering how I got in this situation.
“But you’re grouchy, a jerk and you’re a stalker!”
“A stalker? Now you really have lost your mind.”
“Well, you are! How else can you explain the way you just jumped out of the dark tonight at the bridge?”
“I was worried you would do something foolish—which, by the way you totally did,” I respond, looking down at the woman who is standing in the rain, giving me hell and not backing away from me. She’s standing so close to me that I can smell the scent of lemon even over the down pour. How that’s possible, I don’t know, but it is just the same.
“I did not! I would have been fine if you hadn’t shown up. I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing it for myself for a while now.”
“If that’s how you take care of yourself, it’s a wonder you’re still alive.”
“Okay I was wrong. You’re not one of the good ones. You might be hot, but you’re an asshole!”
“That makes twice you’ve said that kind of shit. I don’t know what you think you’re going to gain by lying to me, but I assure you that I can see through it and you might as well drop it now.”
“Drop what?”
I growl under my breath. “That’s enough,” I respond, my voice cutting. “I’ll put a stop to this right now.” I yank my hair back, the part that I keep to hide my face, and reveal the long, jagged scar that runs from the corner of my eye, down along my jawline and down part of my neck. “Lie to me again, Ophelia. Tell me how hot I look now,” I order. I know what comes next. I’ve been in this game before.
So, I wait.7OpheliaI’m standing in the pouring rain, water running off my face, pelting my hair with Bogo squirming to get loose. All this is happening while I’m arguing with a man I don’t know. A man who I’m sure just meant to scare me and instead…
I’m turned on.
I don’t understand it. From the beginning, even though he’s been a jerk, there has been this magnetic pull that I’ve felt where he’s concerned. Right now, he’s trying to be an asshole and I’m pretty sure he’s trying to scare me, or at least get me to leave.
Instead, I squat down and put Bogo on the ground. He immediately trots over to the covered porch. I guess Bogo is smarter than I am at the moment. I don’t try to get under the cover of the porch. I rise back up to stare at the man before me. The man that is filled with pain and rage. I can see it, even if all he means to show me is the anger.