Page 49 of Defiant
Which…now that I was thinking about it, I wouldn’t put past him. He did seem like the brand of crazy to not let anything get in the way of what he wanted. And, for whatever reason, right now he wanted me. I still wasn’t sure why.
I leaned on the counter near my jacket—might’ve cocked my hips a bit, too. “You seem tense, Jacob. Are you sure there’s nothing I can do?”
He folded his arms over his chest, keeping at least ten feet between us. “Just tell me why you wanted to meet today,” he muttered, pointedly ignoring what I’d said.
“Straight to business, huh?”
Jacob’s hazel eyes glared at me. He worked to take off his jacket, keeping himself away from me as he hung it on the metal hanger near the door. “With you, always.” I laughed at that, which caused him to harrumph like the grouchy grouch he was, “What?”
I shrugged. “You weren’t all business Friday night.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked, and he moved into the living room, practically collapsing onto his couch. “That conversation never happened,” he muttered.
“That’s funny, because I strictly remember it happening.” Pushing off the counter, I moved to sit beside him. As I did, my side brushed up against his. Okay, I might be enjoying this a little bit too much; sue me. Teasing Jacob was fun.
The moment my arm grazed his, he leaped up, scowling at me. “Why do you have to get so close to me?” He stood on the other side of the coffee table, glaring at me as if his stare could stop my heart from beating.
I was slow to stand. “I was just sitting next to you…” When I moved around the small table, he walked the opposite way. He was determined to keep space between us, which only made me want to prod him even more. Call me weak, but Jacob’s scowling was adorable.
“No, you weren’t.”
My head tilted. “Then what was I doing?”
“You were—you were not just sitting next to me,” he muttered, frowning a deep, almost pouting expression. “You need to stay at least five feet away from me—”
“For your sanity or mine?” I cut in, giving him the most innocent look I could muster. As it turned out, I wasn’t so innocent, so it was kind of tough. My lips curled into a frown. “Why is Mr. Grumps so grumpy today?”
He lifted a hand, as if he was going to touch me, but then the fingers on that hand curled until he pointed at me. “You,” Jacob said, “are a terrible, terrible girl.”
“I can be a good girl, if that’s what you want.” Okay, that was laced with heavy sexual undertones, wasn’t it? God, the serious conversation he and I needed to have aside, this was literally making my day.
Jacob’s eyes widened a bit, and for a while, he could say nothing else. “I…I never should’ve brought you back here.” With a handsome scowl on his face, he grabbed my jacket off the counter, tossing it at me. “We’re leaving. We’re going somewhere else to talk.”
I made no moves to catch the jacket. I simply let it hit my chest and fall to the ground. “I’m not going anywhere,” I said.
“Put on the jacket,” he growled out, pointing to the heap of a hoodie on the ground. When I did not move a muscle, he repeated, “Put the fucking jacket on.”
“Make me.”
My words were a challenge, and he took them as such. Jacob temporarily forgot about keeping distance between us, storming to my side as he snatched the jacket up off the floor. He was measured in standing straight, his angry eyes turning to me, his chest rising and falling with loud breaths.
He was only a few inches taller than me, so his face was dangerously close to mine. I could feel the hotness of his breath on my cheeks, could smell the manly muskiness of his scent. I could see each and every prickle of stubble on his cheeks, since he never took care of himself.
Hmm. Ten years wasn’t that much of a difference, was it?
Before he could say anything, before he could realize how close he was to me and take a step back, I lifted a hand, running it along the side of his face. Just a soft touch, enough to feel the prickle of his stubble against my fingertips, enough to hear the immediate hitch in his breathing.
“I like riling you up,” I whispered, meeting his eyes. They were so close, they were hard to focus on. “I don’t know why, but I do.” I let my hand fall away, breathing out a soft sigh.
Who was I kidding? I might want to fire Jacob to keep him safe, but I didn’t want him out of my life entirely. Even if he didn’t want to teach me some self-defense, I’d have to figure out another way to keep seeing him.
I couldn’t cut him out completely.
“You…” Jacob trailed off, his eyes dropping—and for a split-second, I wondered if he stared at my mouth, or if I was just projecting my confusing feelings for the man onto him. “What am I going to do with you?” He held my hoodie off to the side, but he made no moves to force it on me or hand it over.
He also wasn’t stepping away.
I bit my lower lip—which Jacob definitely saw. So he was looking at my mouth. “I could think of a few things.” That definitely crossed the innuendo line and was overtly sexual. Oh, well. I never claimed to be an angel, and being here in Midpark, surrounded by all this sexy testosterone and the guys radiating it, I was feeling frisky.
