Dare to Resist (Wedding Dare, #0.5)(21)

Colton stared down at her, his jaw ticking.

“Would you please let me in? I’d really like a shower and then I need to do some work.”

Finally, he relented, and Kady beelined for the bathroom and locked herself in. She dragged out the shower for as long as she possibly could, dread pressing down on her shoulders and making her feel heavy and sluggish. It was going to be a very long day if Colton didn’t snap out of whatever this was.

Soon, she was dressed in her blouse and skirt again, had put a little makeup on her face, and had blown her hair most of the way dry. At least she felt a little more human now.

Hand on the doorknob, Kady bolstered herself to deal with whatever was going on with Colton. She walked into the main room and found him sitting on the nearest corner of the bed, head down, elbows braced on his knees. He held something in his hands. A book, it looked like.

The walls sucked in on Kady and her pulse was an immediate roar in her ears.

Not just any book. Her book. Her absolute favorite erotic story.

…

“Promise me we can talk about this without things getting weird,” Colton said, echoing her words from the day before. He’d spent half the night and all morning debating what the hell he wanted to do—what he should do—and it had left him feeling torn right down the middle. He wanted her, of that he had no doubt. But that didn’t mean he was good for her. By the time she’d woken up this morning, he’d been exhausted and confused and pissed off. He’d just about reached the decision to sit tight and keep his mouth shut when she walked out on him at the diner—and paid for her own breakfast.

Both of those had stung hard and made him realize he was screwing up with her again. Big-time. And the only way to fix it was to lay it all on the line.

“You went through my stuff,” she said, her deer-in-the-headlights gaze slowly shifting to outrage. Her cheeks nearly glowed they were so red.

He shook his head. “I didn’t mean to. I tripped over the strap to your laptop bag last night and it spilled out.” He held the book up between them. “Can you tell me about this, Kady?”

“Um, it’s mine, and that’s pretty much all you need to know,” she said as she reached for it.

Colton yanked it away and rose to his feet. “I know that much—”

“You’re being an ass right now. Give me the book,” she said, marching up to him and planting her hands on her hips.

“I’m not trying to be. I’m trying to talk about something with you. Seriously.” He nailed her with a stare. “Like we did yesterday.”

Her eyes went wide and her whole face frowned. She hugged herself. “Colton, I’m not talking about my sex life with you.”

“Your sex life? So, you do this kind of stuff?” he asked, struggling to keep his voice even and to decide if he was thrilled at the possibility or terrified for her safety. It took so little to make this kind of kink go very wrong.

“What business of yours is it if I do?” she asked. “Let me answer that for you. None.”

The lifelong friend and dominant male personality inside him both disagreed. “This kind of edgeplay can be dangerous—”

“Oh my God,” she said, throwing up her hands. “Listen, Dad, thank you very much for the lecture on safe sex. It’s just maybe possible that sometime in the last eight years of being an adult I’ve learned how to take care of myself.” Her mouth dropped open. “Is this why you’ve been pissy all morning? It is, isn’t it?” She raked her hands into her hair and tugged the length of it into a ponytail. “Because you don’t approve, or, what? It offends you? God.”

No, she had it all wrong. The irony. “Kady, that’s not—”

“I’m so mad at you right now I can barely see straight,” she said turning away and pacing toward the bathroom. “No matter what I do or don’t do, you don’t get to judge me.” She whirled on him. “And if you tell Tyler about this, I swear I will never talk to you again.”

As if he would. If he could just get a word in edgewise… “Kady—”

“Do you—”

“Kady!” he yelled, needing some way to get her attention, because now he was getting pissed off, too. She seriously thought he’d judge her? That he was some kind of judgmental *? He dropped the book to the bed, stalked up to her, and essentiallytrapped her against the closet doors. Heaving a deep breath, he muscled the anger back. That wasn’t going to help anything. Besides, weren’t her worries about his reaction similar to the ones he feared about hers?

Aw, hell.

“I’m not judging you and of course I won’t tell Tyler.” Skepticism filled her gaze. He shook his head and couldn’t help the humorless laugh he chuffed out.

“This isn’t funny,” she said, crossing her arms.

“No, it’s not. It’s serious. I’m trying to be serious.”

“Right. It’s dangerous. Message received.”

Goddamnit, she had a smart mouth on her. So many things he’d like to do to temporarily cure her of that. And now he knew she’d enjoy them, too. “Kady, I just meant—”

She huffed, stoking both the flames of his aggression and his arousal. “I got it.”

He fisted his hands. “No, you f*cking don’t, because you won’t stop talking long enough for me to explain myself.”