The Playboy's Baby(60)

“I felt the need to hit something, so I did.” Tension radiated off him. He stared at the computer screen, a deep scowl etching his forehead.

Emma pursed her lips. If that wasn’t like a man. “How very barbaric of you. Who pissed you off?”

His gaze shifted to her, his intense eyes pinning her to the spot, but he didn’t say anything. After a moment, he turned back to the computer. “Heard Ronnie asked you out.”

That was what bothered him so much? He was jealous of her? Oh of all the egotistical…

She jerked her gaze back to the monitor and jabbed the key to set the next video to play. “Yeah, so?”

“You didn’t actually go, did you?”

At the obvious irritation in his tone, she turned her head. A muscle in his jaw ticked and the hand on the desk curled into a fist. The sight set the anger in her stomach rising to steaming proportions.

“Maybe.” She glared at the computer screen.

Okay, so she went out with Ronnie…like friends. She made it very clear anything romantic didn’t interest her. Hell, she went out with the girls too. She and Rhonda went out for coffee the other day.

More to the point, she created a life for herself here in Hastings. Dillon gave her the keys to the house. She went to the city three times in the last week to gather necessities—dishes and silverware, her bed, a couch, the dining table, and coffeemaker. Things she needed to live on. Working at the club ended up being a plus. The friends she made here helped her to slowly move herself in. By Wednesday afternoon, she had enough to live on until she could pack the rest of her house.

All of which made her feel a lot less like she wrapped her world around a man who’d never love her in return.

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.” She didn’t bother to hide the annoyance in her tone. He acted like a spoiled brat and it irked her no end. Never mind the way he all but flaunted Leila in front of her the other night. He had no right to judge her.

Dillon’s gaze snapped to hers, fury blazing in his dark eyes. “You can’t see him, Em!”

This time the anger got to her. Rage rose within her before she could stop it. “Why?” She spun toward him and met his glare with one of her own. “Because you forbid it? Go ahead. Tell me it’s against company policy. I dare you.”

He smacked his palm down onto the desk, his face suddenly inches from hers. “Because you’re mine, dammit!”

Before she could get a word in edgewise, his mouth swooped down and claimed hers, his kiss hard and possessive. He was proving a point—he was jealous and they both knew it.

God help her it was sexy. No man had ever gotten jealous over her before. It made her want to lean into him, snake her hand around the back of his head, and kiss him back with everything she had.

Except she couldn’t forget seeing him with Leila.

Her hands trembling with a lethal combination of need and fury—at him for putting her in this position in the first place and at herself for responding to it—she shoved against the solid wall of his chest, shoved hard, and wrenched her mouth from his.

“Grow up!” She held his gaze and surged to her feet.

He didn’t move, didn’t back away. His chest heaved, his eyes still stormy and intense.

“You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to decide you don’t want me anymore, but nobody else can have me either. I’m not some toy you can decide to pick up and play with whenever the mood suits you.”

With that, she shoved past him, but stopped in the doorway.

“I saw you kiss Leila. I was prepared for you to move on. Hell, I knew it was coming, but you could have at least waited until I got off shift.” She let the door slam behind her and stormed from the room, all the way downstairs to the bar. There, she sank onto a stool with a huff.

“Give me a shot, Ronnie.”

“Bad night?” Ronnie set a shot glass down in front of her and filled it with a deep, amber liquid.

She knocked it back in one swallow, grimacing when the fiery liquid burned a path down her throat. When Ronnie refilled her glass, she knocked that one back too, but the warmth spreading through her did nothing to unravel the hard knot of anger in her stomach.

“Want another?” When she shook her head, he picked up the glass. “You and the boss man have words?”

She pursed her lips and furrowed her brow. “That man is insufferable.”

Ronnie shook his head. “Only when he’s riled. When he cools off, he’ll come around.”

Then he wandered off, leaving her alone to fume.

She couldn’t do it anymore. Working for him had been a very bad idea. For her own sake, she needed to unravel her life from his. Outside of their connection to Annie, she didn’t want anything to do with him. Her heart couldn’t take it.