She stared at him, astounded. “I can’t believe you don’t like him because of his tattoos.”
“I can’t say I don’t like him. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know anything about him, actually,” Grant bit out. His face was drawn into angry, grim lines. “That could be why I don’t want to leave my incredibly shy sister with a stranger. I can’t believe you went off into the woods alone with him.”
She rolled her eyes. “What was he going to do, feel me up while I was driving the four-wheeler?”
“Maybe. You never know.”
“Well, he’s moving into my cabin, so I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities for him to continue his orgy of molestations.”
Grant screeched on the brakes. “You’re kidding, right?”
Brenna held on to the dashboard. “It’s not like I’m going to be in there.”
His face softened as he looked over at her, and there was a hint of a smile on his mouth. “Because you’re going to move in with me?”
Whoops. Someone honked at them, distracting her, and she glanced at the car behind them, since it was easier to focus on than Grant’s hopeful face. “Actually, I thought I’d just sleep on the couch in the lodge.”
His mouth hardened again. He started the car forward once more, glaring out the front windshield. Great, now he was all pissy again.
And she had a realization. “You’re jealous.”
“How can I be jealous? We’re just having crazy, no-strings-attached sex, remember?”
“Exactly! So why are you jealous?”
“I’m not. I just don’t understand why you’d rather have no home than to stay with me.”
Like she was going to admit the whys and hows of her hang-up to him? Brenna crossed her arms over her chest and slouched in the passenger seat. “Maybe because you’re being a dick?”
“It’s a good thing there’s no emotion involved in this relationship then, isn’t there?” His voice was caustic with anger. “Or else you’d probably be mad.”
She was mad, actually. She was furious at him and his high-handed ways. But she didn’t say anything, because if she did, she’d just prove him right. Irritated, Brenna glared out the window at the passing scenery, and neither of them spoke until they arrived in Bluebonnet.
Reggie and Justine were waiting for them in front of the Peppermint House. They seemed a little stymied by the foul moods of both Brenna and Grant.
“Don’t worry,” Brenna told them in an innocent voice. “This will just make the make-up sex all the sweeter.”
And she relished the withering look that Grant sent in her direction.
SIX
He couldn’t believe her.
Brenna would rather sleep on a couch than move in with him. It was ridiculous.
Seated at his work station in the main lodge, Grant clenched his teeth and stared at his computer screen. While his family was out getting a tour of the grounds, he figured he could get some work in. That was, if he could concentrate. Grant rubbed his jaw, determined not to look over at Brenna’s desk. If he did, then she’d know he was thinking about her. He could hear her humming an off-key little tune, as if nothing in the world was bothering her.
And that drove him even crazier.
It was like she honestly didn’t care about anything. She’d hired Rome with no qualifications other than the fact that he would look good with dirt rubbed on him. She slept with Grant—mindblowing, soul-destroying sex—and then was surprised that he wanted more than just a quick f**k.
The thing was, when she was ‘pretending’ to be his girlfriend, it felt so natural and easy that he immediately wanted that in his life on a permanent basis. Her playfulness, her sexuality, her inability to take things too seriously? It attracted him like food attracted a starving man. She reached for him so casually, her affection so seemingly sincere that he had a hard time adjusting when she pushed him away and demanded that things be casual. He wasn’t a casual kind of guy. He just wasn’t.
And ever since Brenna had climbed into his bed? He hadn’t thought about Heather once, not until he sat down at his desk, still fuming from his fight with Brenna, and opened his drawer to find the hidden picture of his dead ex-wife staring up at him.
It was weird. Normally he thought about Heather daily, the ache of her loss still ripping through him, the guilt a constant companion. But Brenna had him so distracted with her actions that he hadn’t had time to dwell on the past. Instead, he was anticipating her next move, trying to figure out ways to get a step ahead of her. Trying to figure out how to make her want to be with him as much as he wanted to be with her.
Grant took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, a headache starting when Brenna’s humming paused and then went up a too-screechy note. “You can’t sing worth a damn, Brenna.”
“I’m also a lousy dancer,” she said in a cheerful voice, typing away on her computer. “Your point?”
“You’re making my head hurt.”
“Oh.” She paused for a minute, and then began to hum louder.
Instead of pissing him off, though, he had to bite back a smile. He should have guessed that she’d do that. She constantly sought to get under his skin. And somewhere along the way, he’d grown addicted to their constant needling of each other. When had he started to look forward to her challenges?
Probably the day that she’d grabbed him at the airport and planted a kiss on his mouth. That was when all the challenges and small harassing moves became less like aggravation and more like—as Elise had commented—foreplay.
But he was still pissed at her. Still pissed that she’d jaunted off into the woods with dangerous-looking Rome and thought nothing of it. Pissed that she’d hired the guy for his looks. What if she decided she wanted casual sex with him, too? Where would that leave Grant? He fought the swell of rage in his chest, his mouth tightening as he stared at a monthly budget spreadsheet.
The lodge was too quiet. Too goddamn quiet, too still, and he was simmering with way too much emotion at the moment. Colt had taken Grant’s parents, Elise, and Rome out on a tour of the grounds, since he could do a much better job of it than Grant could. Grant had cited pressing work, but the truth was, he’d simply wanted to be where Brenna was, so he could wait for her explanation. Ideally, her apology.
But it seemed like he’d be waiting a long, long time.
The humming stopped. She looked over at him. “Are you going to keep doing that?”