Gripping the bottle, he raised it to his lips.
She watched him drink and pushed, “But you did sleep next to me. Not very restfully that I recall, but you did.”
His eyes narrowed as he stared out at the darkened lake, his jaw clenching.
“I had a right to know if I was in danger.”
“Yeah.”
Cassidy watched him for a minute, a minute he neither responded further nor acknowledged her. She snorted in exasperation. “That’s it?Yeah?” She dropped her leg to the porch as she started to stand up. “Give me my dog, Mac.”
“I wanted to be in bed with you, Cassidy,” he confessed, causing her to pause mid-stand. His dark eyes flicked back to her. “I didn’t tell you because I wanted to be there. A sane woman would not have let me next to her.”
His eyes begged for understanding, full of apology; she sat back down on the railing.
“And Fred.” He inspected his arm with the scar. “I counted on Fred. Looks like he would’ve done his job. And it was daylight; I don’t have nightmares in the day.” He gave her a wistful look.
Cassidy glanced at his arm, then away.
“Did you have a right to know? Yeah, you did. But I was selfish. I didn’t want the opportunity to lie next to you taken away.”
She shot him a guarded side-eye.
“You’re the first woman I slept next to since Josie. First woman I’ve…” He grimaced, dropping his gaze.
Still considering him from her side-eyed slant, she prompted bitingly, “Oh, don’t stop now; you’ve only begun to pique my interest. The first woman since Josie that you’ve—what? Yes, slept next to, but what else? Hurt while unconscious, or rather, oblivious?”
He looked at her with a touch of temper but also a slight smolder. “Done more than just fucked. Kissed, licked, ate, sucked, and went back for more. Over and over, not getting enough of you,” he graphically pointed out. “First I’ve spent three days fucking. First I’ve made love to. First I’ve invited in. Want me to go on?”
Cassidy’s eyes snapped away from him as her cheeks flamed. Yes, he’d done all of those things to her, and her body was eager for him to do them again. Damn him! But, “You never invited me in.”
“The fuck I didn’t.” He gestured toward his boat with his beer bottle. “What the fuck do you think that day was about?”
“You getting laid on a boat.”
“Goddamnit, Day,” he rumbled.
“Isn’t that what you said to me the last time I was here?” she challenged. “I asked you about your bullshit, and you dismissed me—said if I hadn’t shown up, all it meant was that you wouldn’t have gotten laid.”
She lurched to her feet. “Don’t try to turn whatever uncharacteristic attack of conscience you’re experiencing now into something more than it’s been. You’re a prick; you always have been. I’ve been a convenient fuck for you. You like my dog. There is nothing more here!”
Mac got to his feet, eyes steady and intent on her. “You done?”
“Fuck you!”
He threw the beer bottle, it smashed against the side of the cabin, shattering in a spray of foam. She startled and screamed, cringing away, throwing up an arm in the event of rebound.
“No, I’m not doing this,” she said with a ragged breath, turning toward the stairs. “You don’t get to do this again.” She’d only gotten down two steps when his arm snaked around her waist and dragged her back up, eliciting another shriek from her.
“Told you I’d chase,” he rasped in her ear as he hauled her back against his chest.
Cassidy pushed at his restraining arm, resentful of the panic rippling through her as he dragged her back toward the door. “Mac, stop, you can’t do this!”
Opening the screen door, he tossed her inside. She stumbled away, looking at him warily as he stood between her and the door, fighting back the surge of fear.
“You can’t hold me hostage!” she yelled at him.
“Fucking hear me out,” he insisted. “You are one stubborn woman!”