“Of course, I do,” he said, like my words were ridiculous, then he almost choked again when he accidentally breathed through his nose.
“It smells nice in here!” I said, so exasperated I could burst into flames myself. “I have a nose, too.” It was small, but it could pick up any smell without trouble, and the only smell in my apartment was that of lilacs from the fabric softener I used.
“Yes, I noticed,” he mumbled. “And why the hell is everything so tidy around here? Look at that—” He pointed at the kitchen. “It’s so…clean.” He made a face like the fact disgusted him.
My mouth opened and closed a few times, but I found nothing to say. He was offended by my clean kitchen? Was he serious?
I pointed my finger at his massive chest. “I am going to report you, just so you know. I already wrote everything down so I don’t forget a single detail,” I said. And yes, I realized that he was three times my size, but I didn’t even care. If he had a bat under that jacket, let him bring it out. I might have been tiny, but I had a lot of fight in me, and he would witness it if he so much as raised his hand toward me.
But Dominic only snorted. “Do what you gotta do, but our plane leaves in an hour, and you need to pack a bag if you want to come on this mission. Your choice.”
He took another step back, and his eyes kept looking at my face, analyzing me, until they scrolled down to my chest, and my hips, and my legs…
Shit. I was wearing a white tank top that I usually wore at home, and it showed a lot of cleavage, not to mention my light grey leggings were really tight. Heat rushed to my cheeks when he swallowed hard, then squeezed his eyes shut again.
“I can’t stay here,” he repeated and turned for the door, practically running. “Pack your bag. I’ll be outside.”
“I am not going anywhere with you!” I called, but he’d already opened the door.
“I’m taking Mathews place in the mission, Teddybear. You can either come with me or refuse the mission and stay here, where it’s safe. Honestly, you’d be doing both of us a favor if you did that.” And he closed the door behind him.
There were no words to describe how I was feeling, but you could fry eggs on my skin right now. My fists shook and my mind was about to explode from the impossibility of the situation.
Dominic Dane was taking Mathews’s place. I would have to actually work with him, wherever we were going. Far away, apparently, if we needed a plane to get there. And I’d be with Dominic Dane.
“No,” I said to the walls. “No way. I’m not going.” I would not share a plane with that guy, let alone a mission. It was absurd. We hated each other’s guts. At least, I had a reason for it. He didn’t.
“We’ll kill each other before we board that plane.” We would. There was a good chance that I’d be the kill-ee and he the killer, but still. One of us was going to end up dead.
And I didn’t want to lose my life at the hands of that pretentious wolf-ass, did I?
I sat on the couch again with a deep sigh. The report on the screen of my laptop on the coffee table taunted me.
“You’d be doing both of us a favor,” I mocked. “Stay here, where it’s safe.” What did he think I was—made of paper?
No, I couldn’t refuse this mission. If I did, how long until the Chief gave me another? I would not let Dominic Dane make a coward out of me, damn it. I needed this mission. I needed to be out there, doing something, to prove to the world that I could make a difference even if I wasn’t growing plants. I needed to prove it to myself.
So what that he was a murderous werewolf who would throw me under the bus the second it was convenient? It didn’t matter. This was my mission, and I was going to go out there, do my job, and make myself—and my family—proud.
So, I closed the laptop and I got dressed quickly. I grabbed the biggest backpack I owned and put in only my essentials—underwear, jeans, shirt, toiletries, and my chargers. I was done in ten minutes, but when I opened the door and found the hallway empty, my heart fell. He’d left. The wolf-ass hadn’t waited for me at all. He’d probably been happy that I hadn’t come out after him, and he’d left.
I locked the door and walked down the hallway, anyway, determined to make my way to the airport on foot if need be.
“You self-absorbed, narciss—oh.”
I walked out of the double entrance doors to find Dominic Dane sitting on the stairs. He looked up at me, eyes so full of color they could be a sky all on their own. He looked me up and down—the purple shirt and the jeans I’d had on earlier, along with my denim jacket, the backpack hanging on my shoulder. Heat gathered in my stomach and shot up and down me lightning fast.
Focus, I told myself, but it was useless. The way he looked at me made it impossible to focus on anything other than the hunger in his eyes. Why does this bastard have to be so beautiful? How was that fair?
“You sure about this, Teddyb—”
“Don’t call me that,” I snapped, and this time, it had nothing to do with how infuriating he was. It had everything to do with the heat under my skin and the fact that I was having trouble looking at his face at all.
“And, yes, I’m sure.”
“Okay,” he said, a bit disappointed.
My mouth opened to yell at him again, but what would be the point? It was just wasted breath, anyway.