“Is there anything else you need, Lachlan?” I asked sweetly.
He dipped his face, closing in on my forehead. “This looks bad.”
“Why, thanks. You say the sweetest things.” I shook my arm. “How about you let go now? That’d be great.”
His hold loosened, but instead of letting go, his thumb stroked the inside of my bicep.
“You didn’t mind me holding on to you a couple days ago.”
“I didn’t?” I would have tugged my arm away from him, but he’d caught the sore one, so I was at his mercy, and right now, the way he was looking at me was pretty merciless. “You didn’t mind me taking your dick in my mouth. But times change, don’t they? Our friends are back, and now we don’t touch. Go back to being the guy who leaves the room when I enter and—”
“You’ll be the ice queen. I don’t think you ever stopped unless you were naked.”
Pain be damned, Ididtug my arm out of his grasp then. “Wow, Lock. You know me so well.” My tough girl act would have sold better if I wasn’t breathless from the shooting jabs of agony in my shoulder. Making it worse, I automatically clutched it, drawing Lachlan’s attention.
“What the fuck?” He moved into me, easily pushing my hand out of the way to gather the V-neck of my shirt in his fist, revealing my bruise-mottled shoulder and arm. “Don’t tell me this is nothing.”
“It isn’t nothing. It hurts like hell. But the thing is, my body is not your business, and I truly don’t appreciate you shoving my clothes aside like you have any sort of rights to me.”
This time when he grabbed me, he did it gently, but otherwise, he ignored all I’d just said. “Are you going home?”
“I’d like to, yes.”
He tipped his head to the side. “Come on. I have my truck. I’ll drive you.”
“No thanks.” I would not be spending another minute with this man. My house was nearly a mile away, and I didn’t have a problem walking that distance.
As always, Lachlan didn’t listen. “You’ll ride with me.” Then he started walking, and unless I wanted to be dragged by my already injured arm, I had no choice but to go with him.
“You really shouldn’t touch women who tell you not to,” I said.
He grunted but didn’t slow or let go of me. “I’m giving a clearly injured and delirious woman a ride home. Don’t make it out to be anything other than what it is.”
The double meaning was heavily implied. He thought I’d made the sex into something more than it was. And maybe I had. Not that I’d fallen for Lachlan, not even close. He’d given me something without meaning to, and I wanted more of it.
Logically, I knew it wasn’t Lachlan’s fault he was the first man to ever make me come while inside me. I knew it wasn’t his fault sex with him didn’t feel like an exchange of services. Most of all, I knew it wasn’t his fault he’d been the one to awaken nerves that had been numb since Nate raped me.
God, I hated that word so much, but adding “date” didn’t pretty it up.
So, no, I wasn’t in danger of falling in love with Lachlan. But I was pissed he’d taken away the one thing I thought would be impossible for me to ever have. All because…what? I was an embarrassment to him? He’d die if our friends knew he’d stooped so damn low?
He practically threw me into the front seat of his truck, buckling me in like the first time he gave me a ride. I caught a whiff of his scent. Obviously, he smelled good. Why wouldn’t he? Everything about him was good except his personality.
We rode in silence through campus until traffic came to a crawl. Everyone was leaving at the same time, and no one knew how to drive. So, I was stuck in a truck with a fuming lumberjack in stifling silence.
“I don’t know you,” I said.
His head turned my way. “No, you don’t.”
“Is this your MO?”
“What do you mean?”
I looked at him, then away. I didn’t like his face right now. “I mean, do you regularly hit it and quit it? Bang and run? Is that your thing? I guess I should have found out before...except you were the one who tore my clothes off. There wasn’t much time for talking.”
His chest made a rumbling sound. “You came to me the other three times.”
“Well, you’re good at sex. Interpersonal relationships, I’m not so sure.”