Page 10 of Ruthless Protector

“Why are you here?” I bit out. My default was to get defensive. Stupid, especially in this situation, but I had impulse control issues around this guy apparently.

His brows rose. “Seriously?”

Seriously, I needed to rein it waaaay back. I needed this man to not kick me out and he was right, I was giving him attitude. But dammit, I was freaking the hell out.

“Okay, look, about calling your work…”

I trailed off, hoping he’d throw me some kind of lifeline here, so I didn’t have to grovel, but his expression did not change. Those brown eyes stayed locked on mine, waiting for me to spit out the rest of what I had to say. Awesome.

“Right, well, I misunderstood what you meant and I guess I was worrying about not being able to make rent. And I…” I gritted my teeth and forced the words I need to say forward. It was hard; I hated apologizing, especially to a man. I hated being beholden to anyone…any man, for anything. “I ah, I made a bad call. I’m sorry, okay,” I rushed out.

His expression did not change for several seconds, then a wicked glint brightened those brown peepers.

“That looked like it hurt,” he said.

I ignored how highly attractive that made him look and pushed on. I needed to make him understand. We couldn’t lose this house. “I know this is not ideal. But I’ll find another job, and I’ll make up the rent. Like I said, I freaked. I thought you might get pissed when your money wasn’t there tomorrow. I thought you might…it’s just, Tilly and I can’t lose this house.”

He was silent a beat. “You thought I’d what?”

The sound of his voice registered and I looked at him, properly. He was serious and intense again. Jesus, I sucked at this. “Well, I thought you might…” Shit.

“Go on,” he said, in a voice that was deceptively calm.

“I’m not very good at this,” I said, because I obviously wasn’t, and somehow, I managed to hit every one of his hot buttons.

One of his arms went up and he gripped the door frame above his head. His bicep bulged. It was massive. The thing was probably the size of one of my thighs.

“You thought I was the kind of asshole who’d kick a woman and kid out on the street?” he said. “Is that what you thought?”

Yep, I was screwing this up, big time. I opened my mouth, closed it.

“Nothing to say for once?”

“I thought that might be for the best,” I said.

“You’re not wrong,” he rumbled. “You want to talk about what’s going on?”

“Nope.”

He stared at me for several long seconds, like he was trying to see inside my head, or I’d suddenly break and spill the beans. When I didn’t, he said, “I’m not going to kick you out, Willa.”

I crossed my arms, suddenly feeling vulnerable, and hating the sympathetic look now on his face. “I’ll pay you back as soon as I can.”

More silence, those soulful brown eyes now assessing me. “Look, maybe we can work something else out?”

I blinked, in shock, which didn’t last long and was quickly followed by eye-gouging rage. “I’m not sleeping with you in exchange for rent, you fucking perv.”

He jerked back, his entire body kind of convulsing, like I’d kneed him directly in the balls.

I pointed at him. “You have some goddamn nerve…”

“Christ,” he muttered, then leaned in a little. “I don’t know how you made that insane leap, but sweetheart, I’m not so hard up I need to blackmail women for sex.”

Heat hit my face instantly. Shit. “So you…you weren’t…”

“That’s some crappy opinion you have of me.” He crossed his arms over his wide chest.

I really didn’t think I could make this whole thing any worse. “Sorry.”