Page 27 of Desert Heat

“What?”

He moves fast for a big man, high-tailing it out of my kitchen, taking my stairs two at a time with me hot on his heels.”

“Stop! You can’t just tear through my home and into my personal space!”

“Watch me!” he growls, barreling into the master bedroom.

I try to stop him but he has my pills, charges into the bathroom and dumps them into the toilet.

“Never,” he grasps my chin. “…no matter how hard life gets… ever get hooked o that shit.”

“I’m not hooked on anything. I barely take it.”

His nostrils flared. He glared at me hard before chucking the empty pill bottle in the trash.

“I hate you.”

“Whatever, one day you’ll hate me even more.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

We stared at each other for a beat. I swear they way he looked at me as if some secret was about to spill out of his lips.

“Nice stufftie.” His gaze finally moves past me to my squishmellow cat on the bed.

“My dad snuck it in with my things. I didn’t even know it was… there.”

The change in him iced the room.

Was it something I said?

“I’m hungry,” he growled moving past.

“The absolute fucking nerve…,” I muttered, making my bed. “To storm in my home uninvited, eat everything, play fucking superhero and assume I’m addicted to pills? Hunter Northport can take his swaggering, muscular, sexy ass back to his dorm room right mother-fucking now.”

“Uh…, I came to see if you were okay?”

“Just peachy, Brandi.”

“Hey, no need to be a bitch to me.”

“You had sex on my futon. So yeah, I can.”

“We-he… took care of me. I’m not that type of girl and we slept on the floor. Tank didn’t want to chance breaking your futon.”

“How chivalirous.”

“They kicked major ass for you. The least you could do is thank them.”

Fuck she was right.

“It’s just hard for me.”

“Saying thank you?”

“Needing anyone for anything… I’m a loner and I’ve gotten comfortable being this way.”

“It shows. You have a mega bitch rep on campus.”

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