I wanted to rip the mobile out of her hands and throw it out the window, and I probably would have if she had not turned it off and put it away in a pocket. “You know what I mean, Brynne, and don’t f**king mock me to him!”

“You embarrassed me back there, Ethan! Paul thinks you are—”

“I don’t give a maiden queen’s first f**k what that cocksucker thinks. What is he to you anyway?”

“He’s a nice guy and a friend.” She wouldn’t look me in the eye when she said it and I knew. Oh f**k did I know!

“Did you let him f**k you, Brynne? Has he knowledge of that fanny of yours that was just made for shagging? Has he had his hands all over you, his c**k inside you? Hmmmm? I really want to know. Tell me about you and nice guy Paul.”

“You are such an ass**le right now.” She folded her arms beneath her br**sts and looked forward out the windscreen. “I’m not telling you anything.”

“Did you f**k him!?”

She shifted in the seat and gave me a look that made pain shoot up my cock. “Who did you nail last before you turned your sights on me, Ethan? Who was that lucky girl? I know it couldn’t have been more than a week past when we got it on for the first time!” She started waving her hands in gestures. “Said the guy who thinks a week is a long time to go without some sex!”

Well shit!

That wasn’t a nice thought because she was right. I hated to admit it, but I couldn’t tell her the name of the last one who’d been able to get me up for it. Pamela? Penelope? Something with a P… Ivan would know, he had a long list of female friends and he’d introduced us. I scowled at the realization that I couldn’t really remember, and the fact that whoever she’d been, hadn’t made her, or the shagging any more memorable than the letter of her name.

Paul started with a P as well, I thought. I was quite certain I’d never forget his name though.

“Having trouble remembering her name?” Brynne asked.

Yes.

“What color was her hair, hmmm?”

Strawberry blonde au naturale. I do remember that much.

“Were you going to f**k her again, Ethan, if you hadn’t met me?” she kept taunting.

I didn’t answer. I started the car and pulled out into traffic, just wanting to get home and maybe back to where we’d been just a few hours ago. I hated arguing with her.

“Why did you slip out?” I managed finally. “After last night, you just ditched me this morning?”

“I did not ditch you, Ethan. I got up, used your treadmill, took a shower and wanted a mocha coffee. We go to that shop all the time and I knew you were tired from…um…last night.”

So she was thinking about last night too. I didn’t yet know if this was to my advantage or not but I hoped so. I pulled into the garage of my building and parked the Rover. I looked over at her hissing mad in the seat.

Brynne wasn’t finished chewing me out apparently. “It’s something I do most every morning. It wasn’t raining and the day was perfect for a short walk down to the corner.” She threw up her hands again. “I had my run on the treadmill and wanted to get a white chocolate mocha. Is that such a crime? It’s not like I busted into The Tower and nabbed the crown jewels or something.”

I rolled my eyes. “Baby, do you have any idea what it was like for me this morning to find you gone? No message, no note, no nothing!”

She threw her head back onto the seat and looked up. “God help me! I left you a note! I did. I set it on my pillow so you’d see. It said: Went to get coffee at Java. Be back soon. I used your gym and took a shower before I left. Doesn’t that speak to what I was doing? Nothing covert going on, just having a normal morning, Ethan!”

Not the kind of normal I want to wake up to ever again, thank you very much!

“I didn’t get your blasted note! I rang you and got voicemail! Why didn’t you pick up if you were just in line for coffees?” I got out and wrenched open her door. I wanted her back in the flat in private. This public brawling sucked.

She shook her head at me and got out of the car. “I was talking to my aunt Marie.”

I stabbed at the lift call button. “At that hour of the morning?” I ushered her into the lift and backed her into a corner, my arms caging her in where I could get a little more influence over her. She was a loose cannon at the moment. The sound of the doors closing us into privacy was the most welcome sound I’d heard in the last minutes.

“Aunt Marie is an early riser and she knows I am up in the mornings to run.” Brynne looked at my mouth, her eyes darting as she read me. I wished I knew what she was thinking. What was in her heart. I’d pushed up very close to her body, but didn’t touch. I just wanted to absorb the fact that I had her back in one piece.

“Don’t do that again, Brynne. I’m serious. Those times of going off on your own are over.”

The lift doors opened and she ducked around me to get out. I followed her down the hall and unlocked the front door to my flat. As soon as we were inside she let me have it. Her eyes flared and got sparkly. She was very, very pissed, and utterly beautiful in a way that got me hard as stone. “So I’m not even allowed to go down to Java’s and get a coffee?” she demanded.

“Not exactly. You are not allowed to go alone and especially without telling anybody!” I shook my head in exasperation at what she’d done, threw down my keys and scrubbed my head. “Why is this concept so f**king difficult to comprehend?”

She stared at me oddly like she was trying to figure me out. “Why are you really so angry, Ethan? Going for coffee in the light of day with people all around could not have been that much of a risk.” She folded her arms beneath her br**sts again.

“For all I knew, you’d broken off with me again and gone home to your place!” The truth is evil sometimes. Did I just say that out loud?

“Ethan! I wouldn’t just do that.” She glared at me. “Why would you think that I would?”

“Because you’ve done it before!” I yelled. There was that evil bastard truth again, worming his way into places and having a field day with my insecurities.

“Fuck you!” she hissed, hair flying as she spun around and fled into the bedroom, slamming the door as she went in.

Fucking hell, she so needed a good shagging. I could think of a few things that would shut her up. You’d think after last night she would wake up soft and obliging like a sleepy kitten. No such luck. I had a spitting mad, feral cat on my hands.