Great Exploitations(18)

I didn’t need to clarify what that unfinished business was—it was pretty damn clear what he was talking about.

“And until we finish this business, you’re going to pop up in every lounge I visit?”

Rob reached across the table for my hand, wrist, or arm. I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t wait to find out. I slid my hand off the table and folded my arm into my lap.

He said, “I’ll be in every lounge, around every corner, down every sidewalk, and every shadow you feel behind you until you quit this whole hard-to-get act and give in to what we both want.”

“You’re doing all of this for sex? Searching all of Tampa for me, trying to intimidate me in a bar, threatening to stalk me day in and day out . . . all because you want to get laid?” I shoved my chair back a bit, needing to put more distance between us.

“That’s part of it.” He glanced back at the bar, raising his empty glass and waving it about. If the bartender could flip him off with her eyes, she just had.

“And what’s the other part of it?” I asked.

Rob smiled crookedly. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

Someone call the clever police because we’ve got a bright one here.

“Listen, Rob, let me return the favor and be frank.” I leveled my eyes with his and reminded myself he was the Errand first, the enemy second. After I finished the Errand, he could move into the number one enemy spot. “I’m good with doing the casual thing. In fact, I prefer the casual thing because I’m a busy woman who doesn’t have time for the mundane and tedious components of a relationship. Yes, I’m attracted to you, and I know you’re attracted to me.”

His eyes managed to go another shade of smug.

I continued, “But just because I don’t play by plenty of the rules doesn’t mean I don’t have any. If you want to give this casual thing between us a chance, you need to stop acting like an overbearing, chest-beating gorilla. You’re going to have to stop acting like you hold the power of where we go from here in your hands because, Rob”—I arched an eyebrow—“I’m the one who holds that power. So why don’t you cut the act, and let’s see where we can go from here?”

I took a deep breath. As a rule, I liked keeping my replies to my Targets short and succinct, but something about Rob Tucker made me verbally vomit. Not that he’d remember a single thing I’d said in the morning . . .

“Yeah, here’s what I heard.” He lifted his hand and made a talking motion. “Blah, blah, blah. I’m stupid. Blah, blah, blah. I don’t know what the hell I want. Blah, blah, blah. Why don’t you just shut me up and show me what I want.”

Boiling blood. One wouldn’t think it could happen so instantly.

I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from snapping back with something I both would and wouldn’t regret. I also had to sit on both of my hands to keep from punching him.

“How about I tell you frankly what you’re really thinking?” Rob leaned so far across the table I smelled the alcohol rolling off of his breath. “You’re thinking you want to keep up this strong-girl act because that’s what Sufferance, bra-burning, and decades of ‘supposed’ gender equality has conditioned you to think. But that’s not how you really feel. None of you women really feel that way because deep down inside of you, in those little strands of DNA, you were all created to serve, and be second, and give obedience like your lives depend on it. And because so many of you bitches have gotten away with ‘equality’ for years, that genetic code is begging to be punished for your disobedience. The core of what makes you what you are won’t be appeased until you’re back in your proper place.” He didn’t blink. He didn’t flinch. He gave no indication that he didn’t believe wholeheartedly in what he was saying.

My stomach twisted before bile crept up my throat. Of all the Targets I’d dealt with, Rob Tucker was on a plane all by himself. Really, I couldn’t imagine the devil being so evil. I mean, at least he didn’t discriminate who got to hang out with him in hell.

I rose from my chair, grabbed my briefcase, and looked down at him. “I’m going now. I think there’s more than enough of you to keep yourself company.”

Rob’s hand whipped out again, faster than I’d guessed a drunk man could move. His powerful grip circled the same wrist, and my bruise pulsed with pain. “I wouldn’t recommend turning your back on me. You started this thing. You damn well better finish it,” he said.

I had to take two full breaths before I could reply. “Consider this, right here, me finishing this thing.” Lifting my other hand, I waved my middle finger at him then pulled my wrist free. It took some serious pulling, but the instant he let go, I marched for the exit of the lounge.