The Real Romero(31)

                Was there a crazier way to join dots?

                ‘So now I’m on a par with a guy who strung you along before he got caught in bed with your best friend?’

                ‘I’m drawing a comparison.’ Milly pushed herself away from the counter and turned her back on him so that she could make herself a cup of coffee. She could feel his eyes boring into her back. Typical! He was charm personified when she was obeying his rules but the second she so much as expressed an opinion that didn’t happen to tally with his, the second she stood up to him and refused to let him treat her like a kid, he suddenly couldn’t see her point of view!

                ‘It’s a ridiculous comparison and I’m not having this conversation. The phone lines are temporarily dead, and it looks as though I’m going to be staying on here a little longer than I originally anticipated, so you might want to rethink your sulkiness—because it’s going to be a little charged if you’re either jumping down my throat or stalking around in surly silence.’

                Had he actually considered the challenge of bedding the woman? Was there a less appropriate candidate? He shot her a glance of pure exasperation. How much more illogical could one human being be? And how much more temperamental? One minute, she was as chirpy as a cricket, pouring out her life story with gay abandon. The next minute, she was a raging inferno, behaving as though his act of kindness in putting himself out to find her had been offensive somehow.

                ‘I just bet you’re like that with all those women who fling themselves at your feet,’ Milly snapped, turning back to face him and plonking herself at the kitchen table with her mug of coffee in front of her.

                ‘Are we still embroiled in this pointless argument?’ Lucas flung his hands in the air and then raked his fingers through his dark hair and folded his arms. ‘Like what?’ He wondered why he was being drawn into this when there was nothing to stop him getting up and walking out of the kitchen, leaving her to stew. ‘What am I like with all those women who fling themselves at my feet?’

                Histrionic scenes annoyed him. In fact, he could think of nothing more unacceptable than a woman having a hissy fit. Women should be obliging, soothing, a source of undemanding pleasure to interrupt the ferocity and stress of his working life.

                He assumed that the only reason he was putting up with the red-faced, throbbing little ruffled angel in front of him was because she wasn’t his woman.

                More to the point, he wasn’t exactly awash with choices, considering she was in his lodge, sharing his space.

                But you could always walk away, a little voice in his head pointed out, and Lucas brushed it aside. This was not an occasion for walking away.

                ‘High-handed and annoying!’

                ‘You’re telling me that you find me annoying?’

                ‘You think you can do whatever you like because of the way you look.’

                Lucas smiled, a slow, devastating smile that made her pulses jump. ‘Is there a backhanded compliment in there somewhere?’

                ‘No. I bet you play the field and lead women on because you can...’

                Lucas stifled a groan. ‘You’re like a dog with a bone.’

                ‘I take it there’s a backhanded compliment in there somewhere?’ Milly parroted tartly and his smile broadened. How was she supposed to get on with the business of being angry with him when he smiled like that? How was she supposed to remember what an arrogant jerk he could be?