Edge of Midnight (McClouds & Friends #4)(34)

“No.” His mouth was a hard, unhappy line. “I don’t. Not at all. I especially don’t hate you. I’m sorry I did that. I had my reasons.”

For some reason, this infuriated her all the more. “What an odd thing to say. Shove somebody off a building, then run downstairs, stand over their broken body, and say, “Sorry, but I had my reasons.”

“Liv, I—”

“I know your reasons. Having a clingy chick like me glomming onto you bored you. So why are you here? I’m the same damn person, just older and stodgier. If I bored you then, I promise, I’ll bore you now.”

“You never bored me,” he said.

“So had you found someone more exciting than me? Someone more sexually skilled? And that was your way of getting rid of—”

“No,” he said. “Christ, no. Can we please just start again?”

“No, Sean. We can’t.” She spun on her heels and headed towards the door, but as she grabbed the knob, he seized her from behind, sliding his arm around her waist and pulling her back against his body.

“No. Wait,” he pleaded. “Just a second, Liv. Please.”

She gathered her breath to scream. He clapped his hand over her mouth. She bit, squirming. “Shh,” he crooned. “You have a right to be mad. Bite me, kick me, just don’t force me to cope with your mother.”

She betrayed herself with the muffled snort of laughter. He carefully lifted his hand away. “If you don’t want to deal with my mother, don’t break into her house,” she said. “You’re suspiciously good at it. Is burglary the career path you finally settled on?”

“No. Believe it or not, breaking into houses is not something I do on a regular basis. I only broke into this house because you were in it.”

He sank to his knees. She backed away, suspicious of the wicked gleam in his eye. “What the hell are you doing now, for God’s sake?”

“Begging for mercy. Trying to come across less threatening. I’m too tall. Do I make you nervous?” He lurched towards her on his knees.

“Certainly.” She backed up until she hit the wall. “And kneeling does not make you look harmless. It makes you look ridiculous.”

He grinned. “Cool. I get all kinds of mileage out of ridiculous.”

“Not with me you won’t,” she warned. “The clown game will not work with me. I am so not charmed, you get me? Not. Charmed.”

He lurched across the room towards her on his knees. “Being scolded by a tough, unrelenting bitch goddess in a silk robe is just about the most fun I’ve had in fifteen years.”

“Stop it! I cannot believe we are having this conversation. I should be screaming about the armed intruder in my bedroom.”

He blinked at her innocently. “How do you know I’m armed?”

“Oh, just a wild guess? You look like the type.”

“I do? Aw, shoot. And I thought my disguise as a normal person was working. Usually I don’t pack. It makes me tense. But I was already tense today, what with bombs and whatnot, so I brought my trusty SP 101 Ruger.” He pulled up his jeans, showed her the revolver in the ankle holster. “I’ve got a knife on the other leg. And my hands and feet could be considered lethal weapons, if you wanted to be picky about it.”

“Oh, give me a break,” she muttered. “Lethal weapons, my butt.”

“I have a legal permit to carry concealed,” he assured her.

“Are you showing me all your macho hardware to impress me?”

He chuckled softly. “I don’t know. Would it work? What would impress you the most? Tell me. I’ll try to deliver.”

“Seeing you act like a grown-up, for once in your life,” she snapped. “Though actually, that wouldn’t just impress me. It would astonish me.”

His smile faded. He gazed at her, and rose to his feet. “What’s the grown-up thing to do?” he asked. “That’s a toughie, for a maturity challenged clown like me. The most grown-up thing would have been to stay away from you in the first place. I’ve already f*cked that up. Next best would be to crawl back out of the rathole I came in. Slink back to the gutter with my tail between my legs. Is that what you want?”

Liv opened her mouth to say yes. The word would not form. She coughed, and tried again. “Don’t guilt trip me,” she said. “It’s not fair.”

“Hold your breath. I’m going to act like a grown-up for the first and probably only time in my life. Don’t blink, or you’ll miss it.”

“Would you just stop being ridiculous—”

“That’s what I’m trying to do.” His voice rang. “I need your help, though. Say it simple and clear, in a language that even a cement-head like me can understand. Say, get the f*ck out of my bedroom, Sean, and stay away for the rest of my natural life.”

She swallowed, over a lump in her throat. “And you’ll go?”

“And I’ll go.”

Seconds ticked by. He stared, waiting. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. Seconds turned to minutes.

“You’re not saying it, princess,” he prompted finally.

Goddamn him. Her hot face quivered. She put her hands over her face before it could crumble. Sean watched her cry, unembarrassed.