Page 120 of Ice Princess

I stare at the side of Gunner’s face, watching his jaw clench and unclench. What on earth is this man thinking? I’d drain my bank account to know.

Gunner swings the car into the parking lot of the grocery store and hops out. I scramble to open my door too, but he’s already ten steps ahead of me and disappearing inside the building. It seems he doesn’t require my assistance.

As I wait, I take out my phone and see messages from Marjorie White.

MARJORIE:Rodney Howard’s office just called asking for the bank account of the Lady Luck Society.

MARJORIE:Rodney Howard will send the money next week.

MARJORIE:Our next Society meeting is in three days.

My stomach roils and I quickly shut my phone off and turn it face down.

The creaking of the driver’s side door alerts me to Gunner’s return. He tosses the plastic bag into the back seat before I can take a peek at what he bought.

We drive some more, following the road that leads to the Kinsey farm.

My stomach twists into knots. I don’t want to go one-on-one with Carol Kinsey right now. But Gunner doesn’t turn into his parents’ driveway and keeps going through the orchard and toward a familiar route.

“Are we going to the treehouse?” I ask him, my heart beating wildly.

Gunner stops the car. “We’ll have to walk the rest of the way.”

I guess that’s a ‘yes’.

Throwing my door open, I prepare to jump out of the truck when Gunner appears in front of me. My heart stops beating when he bends a knee and takes my foot in his hands. His thumb brushes my ankle and a consuming heat zings straight to my heart.

I watch his shoulders, ripped with muscles, tighten as he hesitates for a second and then he slowly pulls my heels off. His eyes skip over my pink polished toenails before he sets the heels aside.

Next, Gunner reaches for something in the grocery bag and pulls out the softest pair of pink slippers I’ve ever seen. My nerves stretch tight as he adorns my feet with the slippers.

“Who was it?” Gunner asks in a dark voice.

I startle.

“Who made you so upset you couldn’t drive back?”

“Why? Are you going to fight them?”

“Maybe.” His eyes are hard as marbles and I don’t have a single doubt in my mind that he’ll drive all the way to the city to avenge me.

I lean forward, setting my hand on his shoulder. “No one bothered me.”

“If they touched you…” His fingers curl into fists.

“They didn’t. It wasn’t like that. I swear.”

He looks up, his blue eyes burning into me.

The tension between us snaps and crackles like an engine consuming fuel.

Does he hate me or not?

Do I hate him or not?

Nothing Gunner Kinsey does makes sense. Nothing that I feel when I’m around him makes sense either.

A blush inches across my face the longer he stares at me. To hide the reaction, I hop out of the car but, since Gunner is still kneeling and he’s a giant of a man, that puts us at the same height.

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