Page 34 of Meant for You

“I just…I thought…” I was suddenly finding it hard to think clearly. His chest was still rising and falling heavily from his workout, and his skin was flushed and damp, and, God, he was beautiful. I tried to stop myself from staring at his chest. “You seemed preoccupied.”

He pushed my hair back at my shoulder with a boxing-gloved hand. “I was preoccupied ’cause a couple of fuckwits were looking at your ass. One: that’s just plain disrespectful to you. And two: you were talking to me, you were with me, that makes you off-limits, and that’s disrespectful to me.”

Honestly, the things he said. What was I supposed to say to that? It irritated me and, hell, gave me a thrill all at the same time. I let my irritation show, because the other feelings I had no outlet for. I shouldn’t even have been having thoughts like that. “They might be nice guys. I know Tanner, obviously. Maybe I wanted to meet the others. I am single, you know.”

His brows lowered and his nostrils flared. “You’re not meeting any of them.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I thought we decided you weren’t going to do this.”

He planted both gloved hands against the wall either side of me, just above my shoulders, caging me in. “Not going to stop protecting you, baby girl.”

“You’re being territorial,” I said, still annoyed and also doing my best to ignore the flutter in my lower belly that was not slowing down, not at all.

He shrugged. Shrugged!

“Look, we live thirty minutes away from each other now. You’re going to see me more often, and sometimes we won’t be together. I might even be doing something you don’t like, and your correct response in that situation is to suck it up, not scowl at people and be a pain in my backside.”

“What kind of things?”

I threw up my hands. “I don’t know. Out dancing with my friends like the other night, or…on a date with someone you might not like.”

“Like Tanner?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, that’s not happening.”

My head was going to explode. “Seriously?”

“If you were dating someone I don’t like, you bet your sweet ass I’ll have a problem with that. If I don’t like someone, there’s a good reason. Not gonna let you go out with assholes, Eves.”

I couldn’t help but push, poke the bear. I don’t know why. “But you are going to let me date someone, right?”

His nostrils flared. “I thought you wanted to know what you were doing before you started dating. Isn’t that what you want me for?”

“Yes, but…you never know what might happen.”

He shrugged again. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Grrrrrr. I poked him in the chest. It was hard and hot. I ignored how good he felt and did my best to show him my displeasure. “You’re making me angry, like punch-you-in-the-junk mad, and I came to say hi since I thought I might not see you for a while. Now I’m regretting my decision.” He smelled so good, all clean sweat and leather, I had to stop myself from breathing more deeply.

“You going somewhere?” he bit out, totally ignoring my rant.

“No, but things are hectic at the ranch. I’m only in Rocktown because we needed feed. I won’t be back for at least a week.”

“I’m not going a week without seeing you. I’ll come to you.”

And then he’d say something sweet like that and I’d momentarily forget how mad I was with him. “That’s probably a good idea. You should be trying to earn my forgiveness, not giving me more reasons to want to strangle you.”

His gaze turned intense, and he sank his teeth into his bottom lip. He did that a lot when he was planning something. He dipped his chin. “You’re right. I’ll see what I can come up with.”

My belly swooped. “Okay, good.” I tried to move, but Dane kept me caged in.

“Not finished with you yet.” His head tilted to the side, eyes glittering. “I promised you we’d start our lessons this week, yes?”

I swallowed. “Um…I wasn’t sure when you—”

“You been kissed much, Eves? Or was it just your hookup, the guy who made you cry?”