Sinner (Shelter Harbor #1)(143)

“I’m not a puppy, you know.”

A grin teases his lips before it fades. “You don’t want me to freeze you out? Fine, then don’t keep things from me.”

“You seriously want to go here?”

“I wouldn’t be asking.”

I purse my lips, arching a brow at him. “I just think it’s funny that you’ve got all these rules of yours, when this is hardly the first workplace thing you’ve had practice with.”

He holds my eyes with his, the gears whirring inside his head as he measures me up. “You talked to Holden.”

I bristle at the freakish way he’s cut right to the heart of it. “No,” I say quickly.

He smirks, and for some reason, the look gets my blood boiling.

“Well you don’t have to be so arrogant about it. I wouldn’t exactly go smugging around the office about breaking up someone’s marriage.”

His look instantly cools. “That is not the story.”

“Oh? Enlighten me how you sleeping with a married woman didn’t break up a perfectly good marriage?”

“Are you at all curious to hear the story, or are you quite content up there in your moral castle throwing blind accusations.”

My mouth snaps shut. “Fine.”

“I didn’t know she was married, first of all. I had too much to drink at an office thing, and I went home with the very forward new contracts representative from our in-house legal team. Whatever torrid affair Holden’s dreamed up in his head, I can promise you, it was not. I saw her once, and I didn’t find out that she had a husband until a week later when she cornered me in the damn cafeteria and told me she was leaving him, for me.”

His face is stony as he levels his eyes at me. “Suffice to say, I wanted no part in being lied to or used like that. I told her we were not a thing, and to go to marriage counseling. What happened after that would have happened whether it was me or any other guy, believe me. Oh, but nice job assuming it was a ‘perfectly happy marriage’, by the way. Thanks for the benefit of the doubt.”

This is stupid. There’s no reason we should be even going here, and I shouldn’t care about any of this crap. What I do need to care about is getting through the next few weeks and making this work.

“So, we done here?”

I narrow my eyes at him. “No, actually. You know you don’t have to shut down like this and act like an asshole just because I won’t fall all over you and beg and whine for you to sleep with me again like every other girl you go through.”

He smirks. “What?”

“That’s really what the problem is here, isn’t it? That’s your thing, right? It’s just not as good unless the girl throws a fit about your whole ‘one-time only’ rule and humiliates herself trying to get you again, right? That’s your little power trip?”

His eyes narrow. “Okay, take it easy.”

“Or what, Landon?” I hiss.

I’m tired of this bullshit between us. I’m tired of walking on eggshells and playing these stupid games after we both agreed that the other night was just sex.

“Look, if you’re waiting for me to act like whatever other women you’re used to and throw some little temper tantrum and beg you to sleep with me again like some sort of desperate charity case, I can promise you, it’s not going to happen.”

“Watch it,” he growls, standing tall, his jaw tightening.

I take a step towards him and jab a finger at his chest. “Yeah? Or what? You going to fire me?”

“It’s crossed my mind.”

I snort. “The hell it has. You need me and you know it, so cut the bullshit.” I poke my finger against his chest.

His very sculpted, very muscled chest.

“And stop acting like I’m was some sort of pathetic pity fuck, because you know damn well you needed it the other night as much as I did!”

My mouth snaps shut.

Okay, that went further than intended.

Landon steps against me. “So you needed the other night, huh?”

“Don’t be an asshole, you know what I meant.”

“You’re dodging the question.”

“You’re being a prick.”

He moves closer - so close that I can feel the heat of his body, and so close that I could lean forward and melt into him.

“You trying to push me?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I whisper back. I drag my eyes up his broad chest, over his sculpted chin, those perfectly tempting lips, and up to those gorgeous eyes and the sinful way they’re burning right into me.

Damnit.

My pulse thuds in my ear as I dart my tongue out to wet my lips, meeting his gaze unflinchingly. “I’m just saying, if you can’t handle being around me in the office after what-”