Page 15 of Ms Perfectly Fine
She sighed. “I apologise,” she muttered half-heartedly, and he tutted.
“Say it like you mean it.”
Autumn was two seconds away from throwing a rock through the glass, but she didn’t want to have to pay for the damages.
“I’m sorry.” She forced a smile, and he disappeared. “Open the damn door!”
She was about to bang on it when it whipped open and she stumbled, thumping his bare chest. He frowned, looking down at her hands on his skin.
“No need to resort to violence,” he murmured, a faint smile playing on his lips.
She jumped back as though he’d burnt her. Then she noticed the towel in his hand. It wasn’t one of her fluffy blue ones, but white; it must be his. Not that she cared whose towel it was—she just wanted to get dry.
“I didn’t know where you kept yours, so I grabbed it when I got the umbrella.”
His words softened her anger a little, though she didn’t want to show it. Why had he bothered to go and get her a towel and umbrella instead of just letting her in?At least I know he didn’t intend to harm me. Clearly, he’s just an idiot.She dropped the umbrella and snatched the towel from him.
“So I shouldn’t expect a thank you?” he drawled, watching her dab her face and neck dry. The towel was soft and warm on her skin, but she wasn’t going to thank him. She was too worried about how being stuck out in the rain would affect her pain.The last thing I need is to miss a rehearsal because of a flare triggered by his stupid games.It had only been a few minutes, though, so hopefully a good soak in the tub would help.
“Thank you for making a bad day worse.” She grimaced, shaking out her long hair and coating him in raindrops, and he winced. “You should put on some more layers—would hate for you to catch a cold,” she said, looking unashamedly at his bare chest.I can admire the view while still hating him,she thought, though she hated that any part of her positively responded to him. She assured herself that it was merely the presence of his warm body so close to her freezing one that made him so enticing.
Elijah took a step towards her. “If you’re cold, I can just turn up the heat.”
She slipped out from between him and the door. “Locking me outside and then flirting? Do you have any basic social skills? You know what—I don’t care. Just give me a key and then I can spend the rest of the night pretending you don’t exist!” she ranted, drying her hair with the towel.
“Please isn’t in your vocabulary?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.
All she wanted to do was end the conversation and get in the bath, so she just extended her hand.
“I made you one, and the new code is written inside the keypad. Now neither of us has to be worried about being locked out,” he said, looking in the bowl on the table by the door.
“I wasn’t worried about being locked out until you locked me out,” she barked. For a moment, she considered leaving him where he stood and calling Nina to come and get her, but she didn’t want him to win. She couldn’t let him drive her out of her home.
He placed the key in her hand. His fingers brushed her palm, sending shivers up her arm.It’s only because he’s warm, and it was freezing outside.
“I apologise. It was a rash decision. I didn’t change the locks entirely to spite you, and I didn’t know it was going to rain. The lock on the back door was broken. I was having it fixed, so I thought I might as well change the front locks,” he said, pulling at the back of his neck. She wondered if he now regretted it. She hoped he did.
“The back door lock was broken?” She looked to the back of the house.
“Didn’t you know? The movers spotted it when they were putting things in the shed.”
“I don’t go out the back often, but it was fine last week,” she told him, wondering how it had happened. She was too tired to care right now, and there was no point in dwelling on it since he’d already fixed it. The movers had probably broken it by accident and not wanted to admit to it. “Goodnight, Elijah.” She headed upstairs to the bathroom before he could say anything else to infuriate her. She wanted to put as much space as possible between her and his naked torso.
“I ordered you a pizza,” he blurted out, and she stopped on the stairs in surprise, narrowing her eyes at him.
“What?”
He shifted nervously. “Don’t think too much about it. There was a double deal, and I did blindside you this morning…”
She was amused by his discomfort, and if she got food out of it, all the better.
“I didn’t know when you would be back, so I put it in here to keep it warm,” he went on, and she resisted the urge to smile. She refused to be won over so easily.
“What’s on it?” she asked, trying to keep her voice neutral. She was damp and sore, and pizza sounded perfect. Following him into the kitchen, she watched him take a boxed pizza from the oven.
“There was one in the freezer with pepperoni, so I figured it would be a safe bet,” he said, opening the lid. The smell made her mouth water.
“Thank you. It’s my favourite,” she muttered, too tired and sore to keep up her defences.
