Page 58 of Damaged Mogul
My jaw drops, but fury prompts me to recover. “That’s your lame explanation?”
He grunts.
“Let me get this straight,” I say. “You operate on two settings––you either grunt like Mr. Grumpy Pants or revert to this… this…”––I wave a frantic finger up and down the length of his body––“primal, feral caveman? Can’t you talk like a normal human being?”
He opens a door behind him. “Get in.”
“Stop bossing me around.”
He works his jaw. “You want to talk? Get inside, Lily.”
Not bothering to wait, he pulls me by the hand, hauling me inside a dark room.
Cardboard boxes, wood crates, extra chairs and tables, a high-back office chair, and a desk, line the walls of the neat storage space.
I turn around to face him.
I cross my arms over my chest, steadfast in my stubbornness.
I expect him to turn on the lights, but he doesn’t.
“Are we supposed to talk in the dark?”
The space basks under city lights coming through the large windows, but I’d welcome a more brilliant light so I can better keep my eyes on the beast.
He takes a step closer.
I unfold my arms and take one back.
We do this dance a few times as he backs me further into the room, his wide shoulders blocking the view to the door—the exit to safety.
A stuttering breath leaves me.
This close, under the faint luminosity pouring into thespace, his wintergreen eyes shine like pale gemstones, the fierceness unmistakable on his handsome face. The scent of his cologne wafting around me, is intoxicating. No doubt it’s calledEau de Scorching Hot.
A little frisson of pleasure runs down my spine.
I snap out of my lust-filled stupor and remember how incensed I am by his over-the-top display of masculine power.
“You’re taking this bodyguard role way too seriously,” I say, coating my words with an extra layer of annoyance.
“You’re right.”
That isn’t the answer I expected.
His big body is standing right in front of me, vibrating with… with… with… I’m not sure with what.
Argh.
“I was supposed to stay away from you?—”
“Why didn’t you?”
He steps up to me, clamps a hand behind my neck and pulls me towards him, and I stumble on my heels.
My breath catches.
My flight or fight mode kicks into high gear.
