“A little?” Steve demanded. He turned to Merissa. “You saw me! You know how bad it was.”
“When you were bedridden? Yes, I remember.” She huffed. “If you had your boyfriends—” Shoot, now she sounded like Armie. “Your friends jump him, then you all got what you deserved.”
“Why thank you, honey.”
“He was following me,” Steve insisted.
“Not exactly how it happened,” Armie told her, sounding bored. “And if you want all the deets I’ll give them to you. But if I stay next to this bozo one second more, I’m going to have to deck him. And then you’ll have blood all over your porch. You don’t want that, do you, honey?”
“No.” Merissa hiked her purse strap over her shoulder, lifted the tote bag and took Armie’s hand. “Later, Steve.”
“It might not be so easy this time, you bastard!” Steve followed them off the porch. “I’ve been working out!”
“Yeah?” Armie glanced back, his expression hopeful.
“No,” Merissa said firmly. “Keep walking.”
He didn’t.
Turning to look over her ex, Armie said, “You got some pretty muscles now, Steve-o? You wanna see how we match up?”
“Armie Jacobson, don’t you dare!” Merissa put both hands flat to his chest and pushed.
She might as well have been pushing on a brick wall.
A little panicked, she whirled around on Steve. “You’ve always been an idiot, but for God’s sake, use what little sense you have and leave!”
“Hey.” Armie’s hands settled on her shoulders. “Calm down, honey. It’s okay.”
She pivoted back to blast Armie. “I do not want you demolishing him where my neighbors might hear.”
He cocked a brow. “So that’s your only concern?”
“I live in a nice, quiet neighborhood of elderly people,” she growled. Did he actually think she still cared for Steve? “Take him apart on your own time, but not in my front yard!”
“Okay, okay. Take it easy.”
Knowing she’d overreacted and now feeling like a fool, Merissa tried to step around him.
Armie pulled her against his chest. Near her ear, he said, “I’m sorry. I would never deliberately do anything to embarrass you.”
That he would be so considerate, that he could pull his anger together so easily, amazed her. She dropped her forehead to his shoulder. “You won’t kill him?”
His rough laugh teased along her nape. “Naw. I’ll leave him intact—for now.” He set her away from him, studied her face and asked, “Okay now?”
They both ignored Steve.
“Yes, thank you.”
Steve wasn’t ready to let it go. “I looked for you. Did you know that?”
“No, I didn’t. But I wish I had.”
“Now I know who you are!”
Dark eyes glittering, Armie smiled at him. “I’ve always known who you are. Keep that in mind.”
Okay, wow. That made Merissa shiver. And when she glanced at Steve, he looked far from unaffected.
Armie took the tote bag from her, put an arm around her waist and walked her to her car. She got behind the wheel and set her purse and tote in the passenger seat.
“I’ll be right behind you,” Armie promised.
“You don’t mind that I’m coming over?”
Instead of answering that, he brushed the backs of his knuckles over her cheek. “We need to clear the air anyway.” And with that he stepped back and shut her door.
Uh-oh. That didn’t sound promising.
In the rearview mirror, Merissa watched Armie go to his truck. Steve still stood on her walkway, glaring and looking like a disgruntled bully. She didn’t like leaving him there, but her house was locked up, the security system on, so there really wasn’t any damage he could do.
When Armie started his truck, she pulled away from the curb. He followed. With every mile the anticipation ramped up and by the time they reached his apartment she’d worked herself up to a near frenzy of hyperneed and nervousness.
Dinner, she reminded herself, trying to stay on task. Armie wanted to talk, too. She needed to know what had happened between him and Steve. Then, finally, she could try getting him back into bed.
And this time, maybe they’d do more than sleep.
CHAPTER SIX
NEVER BEFORE HAD he been so acutely aware of a woman, but this woman had only to breathe and it turned him on. Having her in his apartment was like foreplay, even though sex wasn’t on the agenda.
Torturous.
While trying to stay otherwise busy, Armie heard her in the kitchen, moving around, cooking for him, and damn it, he liked it.
He liked having her here, liked her being involved, liked the elusive daydream that maybe this could be a recurring thing.
Together with Rissy. Playing house.
He pressed the heels of his hands into his eye sockets, drew a breath and, feeling slightly better grounded in reality, joined her in the kitchen.
She wore a soft T-shirt and another pair of jeans that hugged her pert ass and long thighs. She’d left her shoes by his front door and stood at the stove in her socks.
Stirring something in a big pan, she glanced up. “All done?”
He’d thrown in some laundry and done a quick, general pickup of his place. He wasn’t a neat freak, but he wasn’t a slob, either. After that he’d returned some calls to sponsors, a few to other camps that had invited him to work out and one to Drew Black, the president of the SBC. He’d taken his cell to the bedroom to talk and Rissy had stayed in the kitchen, and still, every second, one part of his brain had dwelled on her nearness. “I’ll have to switch to the dryer in twenty minutes.”
“I’ll remind you,” she promised, and her upbeat tone showed that she wasn’t suffering the same emotional uproar as him. “Dinner will be done right around then.”
“What are you cooking anyway?” Scented steam floated in the kitchen, making his stomach rumble. He made a point of eating something every couple of hours. Usually some type of protein. But Rissy kept him so off-kilter he sometimes forgot to breathe, much less eat.
“It’s a chicken dish my mom used to make. Don’t worry, Cannon approved it for his diet, so I’m guessing it’s okay for you, too.”
As she stirred, her hips moved, and that stirred him, too.
Feeling awkward in his own kitchen, Armie asked, “Anything I can do to help?”
“Nope. I’ve got it covered.”
“Okay then.” He pulled out a chair and sat. Might as well get the show on the road. The sooner he put it behind him, the sooner he could get his head on straight again. “I guess we can talk now then.”
Rissy flashed him a worried look, then went back to the food before her, her shoulders slumped. Seconds ticked by before she said, “Do I need to sit down for this?”
Tension pulled his brows together. “Do you still care about Steve?”
Her gaze shot to his. “No.”
“Then it shouldn’t bother you to know I did, in fact, beat the shit out of him, as he accused—but not without good reason.”
Her expression eased and she smiled. After stirring the food one more time she turned it on low and wiped her hands on a dish towel. Joining him at the table, she sat and took one of his hands. “Armie.”
Alarm skittered up his spine. “Uh...what?”
“I already knew you wouldn’t have pulverized Steve, or anyone else for that matter, without a very, very good reason. You didn’t have to tell me that.”
So she thought she knew what motivated him? He almost laughed.
“But if you’d like to tell me, I’ll admit I’m awfully curious.”
When she looked at him like that, her eyes big and happy and sincere, especially while also touching him, he could barely think.
“About Steve,” she prompted.
Shit. “Right.” He freed his hand and sat back in the chair, putting a marginal amount of space between them. “I overheard him talking one night about getting his jollies with some other chick while you were in Japan with Cannon.”
“Huh. Well, not surprising,” she said. “I never could credit him with a lot of integrity.”
“Yet you stayed with him.”
“Just casual dating.” She shrugged. “I’m twenty-three, Armie. Spending my nights at home alone didn’t sound all that fun, you know? Steve was a way to pass the time. We both knew it wasn’t serious. And honestly, if he’d told me he wanted to date other people, I probably wouldn’t have cared all that much.” She tipped her head. “But you wouldn’t have smashed him for that.”
Still reeling over the idea of her being home alone, maybe lonely, Armie shook his head. “No.” An awful suspicion flamed to life in his guts, starting a very uncomfortable burn. Had he hurt Rissy by trying to protect her? Had she been home alone because he’d turned her down?
She crossed her arms on the table, a smile dancing over her lips. “My curiosity mounts by the second. Out with it already.”
Needing to move, he left his chair and went to the stove on the pretense of stirring the food. “He’d made a few shitty jokes about the lady, saying how he’d gotten her stoned to make her more agreeable. That was bad enough, but then he said he needed to restock his supply before you got home. So I followed him.”