Rock Chick Renegade (Rock Chick #4)(97)

He rolled to his side and took me with him, arms going around me tight. He didn’t need to say anything because that was enough.

I put my face in his throat again. “I need a boyfriend with a safe job. Like checkout guy at King Sooper’s,” I told Vance’s throat.

He stayed silent.

“The worst thing that could happen is he’d fall off his rolling stool behind the cash register. Maybe hit his head or something. Sprain a wrist.”

Vance still didn’t speak.

“They have good benefits there, I heard. Great insurance.”

More silence.

“That could be a rumor though,” I muttered to myself since Vance was obviously not listening.

“Jules.”

“What?”

He pulled my hair with a gentle tug and I looked up at him. His eyes were soft and sexy when I looked into them and when he spoke his deep voice was silk. “Shut up.”

Looking at him, the fear moved out of me and I melted into him because, one look at him, I just knew and the clouds over my life parted and I felt the warmth of sunshine.

“Don’t tell me to shut up,” I whispered.

That’s when he gave me one of his grins and I knew I was right. Everything was going to be fine. Then he kissed me, slow, sweet, long, like we had all day and I knew everything was really fine.

When he was done, there were no clouds in the sky. None at all. Just sunshine.

“I’m sorry about last night,” I said quietly, because I had to.

“You need to talk to Luke,” he told me.

I nodded. He was right, I needed to talk to Luke. I didn’t want to but I sure as hell needed to.

“Are you two gonna be okay?” I asked.

“He keeps his distance, yeah. He keeps at this game, no.”

Hmm.

That didn’t sound good. That sounded like I was Yoko Ono to the Nightingale Investigation Team’s Beatles. I didn’t want to be the woman who f**ked up the band.

“I’ll talk to him,” I said then went for another, much safer topic (at least I thought it was safer, but I was very, very wrong). “How long have you been here?”

“About an hour. The minute Bobby walked in, I took off.”

“Why didn’t you wake me when you got here?” I asked.

“I was pissed. I needed to calm down before I talked to you.”

“You could calm down lying na**d in bed with me?” I queried in disbelief.

“Lots of ways to work through anger, Jules, and I’m learnin’ that I like the way you work through it a lot.”

I blinked at him. Then I remembered the grin I thought I saw before he slid inside me.

“You knew we were going to have sex,” I breathed as the realization hit me

I caught the grin this time, full-on.

My body tensed and my blood started pumping through my veins. “How could you know we were going to have sex? We were broken up!” I shouted, trying to pull away but his arms got tight and his brows drew together.

“We weren’t broken up. I was givin’ you time to get your head sorted,” he said.

Um.

What?

“We were broken up,” I repeated.

“We weren’t,” he repeated right back at me.

“We most certainly were,” I snapped.

“Jules, for f**k’s sake, you don’t kiss a woman that you’ve broken up with good-bye.”

This gave me pause for reflection because it made sense.

Still.

Before I could say anything, he went on. “At the cabin, we made up.”

“At the cabin, we were saying good-bye.”

He stared at me for a beat then his brows unknitted and he started laughing.

Laughing!

I yanked back and gained some space. He yanked me forward and took it away.

“This isn’t funny, Crowe,” I snapped.

“You think you f**k four times to say good-bye?” he asked through laughter.

This gave me pause for reflection too because I had to admit, it sounded pretty ridiculous.

I didn’t tell him that.

I tried a different tactic. “Why didn’t you call me if we were still together?”

“Hard to give you space and call you.”

Then something else hit me and my eyes narrowed. “You thought I’d let Luke kiss me when you and I were together?”

“You let Luke kiss you and put his hands up your shirt,” Vance corrected me.

“Whatever,” I said.

His eyes flashed. “Not whatever.”

“I thought we were broken up.” Now my voice was louder.

“I know that now. I thought you were workin’ through shit, experimenting.”

Oh my God.

He did not just say that.

“Experimenting?” My voice was no longer loud, it was quiet, soft and seriously pissed off.

I’d just gone through all sorts of hell, nearly got emotionally chewed to shit by my Rottweiler and through all that, he thought we were still together and he was just giving me space. Not only that, he thought I was the kind of woman who’d “experiment” with another guy.

I took a deep breath to calm myself.

Then…

I lost my mind.

I pulled out of his arms and sat up, wrapping the sheet around me and twisting toward him. “I’m not fifteen years old, Vance, experimenting with every hot guy who comes along! Why didn’t you tell me you were giving me space?”