“I missed you so much, Lexa,” I growled, brushing my lips over hers.
Laughing dryly, she pushed against my chest, but she was unable to budge me. Her head jerked back, and she glared up at me. “Yeah, it was obvious you missed me. How long did you wait, Ben? Did you find someone else the second I left, or did you wait a few days before moving on to the next conquest?”
There was fury blazing in her glacier-blue eyes, but she couldn’t keep the hurt from lacing her voice. “You think I moved on?” I demanded. Grabbing hold of her waist, I locked her against me, making her feel just how much agony my body was in after weeks away from her. “How could I possibly move on when you are all I see?”
“Smooth line, Sheriff,” she seethed. “But I’m not buying it. I see straight through your bullshit now. Tell me something? Was it just a game to you? Did you like chasing after the MC princess and making her bow to your every whim so easily?”
If she were anyone else yelling at me like that, I would have walked away without a backward glance. But she wasn’t just anyone. “God, you’re maddening. You know that, right? Give me two minutes to explain certain things to you, and you can calm down.”
“Calm down?” she repeated before pushing at my chest. “I am perfectly calm, asshole.”
Frustrated, I released her. Walking away a few steps, I shut the door and flipped the lock just in case someone tried to interrupt us. “You saw me having lunch with Paige, is that it? You’re jealous I was eating with her?”
“Is that what you were doing?” She hmphed. “Looked a little more intimate than that.”
At least she wasn’t denying she was jealous, I mused to myself. “It wasn’t anything more than two friends having a meal together, Lexa.”
“Whatever. I’m not going to argue about this with you. I have work to do, and I’m sure you do too, Sheriff.” After walking around the desk, she sat and turned on the computer. “I won’t keep you from doing your job or your…friend.”
“Did you have meals with any friends while you were in New York?” I demanded, trying to get her to see reason.
Her gaze lifted from the screen in front of her, her eyes narrowed on me. “Plenty of times, actually. But I’d never fucked my friend. Can you say the same?”
Fuck. I didn’t know how to answer that. I’d dated Paige. We’d had a pretty hot sex life during our relationship, but once I realized she was trying to change me, any attraction I’d had for her had turned to ash.
“See?” she said, her eyes still flashing flames as high as the gates of hell. Leaning back, she crossed her arms over her chest, lifting her brows. “So, this ‘friend’? Does that include benefits? Or was she someone special?”
Scrubbing my hands over my face, I leaned back against the door, wondering how the hell we’d gotten from me only wanting to hold her, to her wanting to talk about my ex. “She’s an old girlfriend, baby. We dated for like six months, and then I broke up with her when she tried to turn me into something I’ll never be.”
“What was that, exactly?”
“She wanted me to turn my military background into a political career, like her father.”
Lexa snorted, shaking her head. “And yet, here you are. Turning your military background into a political career by running for sheriff in the fall.”
“The irony isn’t lost on me,” I assured her, unable to keep my eyes from devouring the sight of her sitting only feet away from me. “But my career choices weren’t the only thing she wanted to change about me. My ink was too much for her. She wanted me to get anything that was easily visible removed. In her eyes, my size was too bulky, and she wanted me to get leaner. I’m not good enough for her like this, Lexa. Maybe if I’d loved her, I could have changed and been okay with it. But there was never that tight of a connection with us.”
She looked away, frowning at the computer screen. “Well, it looks like she’s over wanting to change you. The way she was touching you earlier screamed she likes you enough to take you as you are.”
“That isn’t what’s going on with us,” I told her as I pushed away from the door and stalked toward her. “Come to my apartment tonight, and I’ll explain everything.”
“No way,” she snapped. “I don’t care enough to know what is going on with you and your bitchy ex. Thanks, but no thanks.”
Putting one hand on the back of her chair and the other on the desk in front of her, I leaned down so that our noses were nearly touching. “Lexa, I haven’t seen you in two and a half weeks. Come to my apartment. Let me explain about Paige and everything else that has been going on while you were away. I doubt your father told you, but I talked to him and—”
“Wait!” she cut me off, leaning her head back and putting inches between us. “You spoke to my dad? And you’re still breathing?”
I grinned and pushed closer, touching my lips to the corner of her mouth. “Believe it, beautiful.”
“Fine,” she breathed. “I…I’ll think about stopping by.”
Cupping the back of her head, I kissed her quickly. “I get off work at eight.” Straightening, I pulled my keys out of my pocket and took off the extra I’d had made to my apartment weeks before just for her. “If you get there before me, use this and make yourself comfortable.”
Hesitantly, she took the key from me and dropped it onto the desk beside the keyboard. “If I can make it, I will. But I’m not going to promise anything. My mom might need me.”
That had me pausing. “I’ve heard a few things about her the last two days. Is it true? Is she battling cancer?”
Lexa lowered her lashes, swallowing hard, but she nodded. “Cervical cancer. She had surgery yesterday. Dr. Weller told us before surgery that the labs showed her can