Page 4 of Badd Ass

“But what?” He demanded.

So…no, he wasn’t going to accept it.

I sighed. “But I’m leaving. It’s what I do.”

“What if I just flat out asked you to stay a few days?” There was no guile in his dark eyes, no hint of any kind of nascent assholery.

But then, in my experience, the asshole tended to crop up when you least expected it, often without warning, and it wasn’t until you had the benefit of 20/20 hindsight that you finally noticed the warning signs you should have seen before. Thus, I leave before the assholery has a chance to emerge.

I ducked under the barrier, being too short to be able to step over like he’d done. “Nope.”

He growled in frustration. “You’re difficult.”

“You have no idea,” I said, still walking.

“Maybe I’d like to have an idea.”

“No, you wouldn’t. My brand of difficult is…not something I’d let anyone sign up for.” I kept walking, ignoring Zane as he kept pace with me, barefoot, shirtless, and too fucking sexy in the pre-dawn moonlight for anyone’s good, least of all mine.

“You know,” he said, finally stopping, “people accuse me of being arrogant, and now I think I’m finally getting a taste of what they mean.”

I halted in my tracks, whirling on him. “I’marrogant?Really? You’re a jackass.”

“Yeah, maybe.” He used my pause to close the space between us. “But at least I’m honest.”

“And I’m not?”

“Nope.” He tapped my nose. “You lyin’, baby girl.”

“To who? About what?” I huffed and spun on my heel. “And why can’t you just let me make my walk of shame in peace?”

“To both of us about why you’re walking away and, no, because I don’t want you to make the walk of shame.”

“Yeah, well, then I’m lying. Fine by me. But I said last night this was going to be one night only, no strings attached, no weirdness in the morning.” I gestured between us. “This? This is weirdness. A lot of weirdness. I thought you were down for a hook-up, and now you’re making it all…awkward.”

He quirked an eyebrow at me. “You are really hung up on things being awkward, you know that?” He crossed his arms over his chest. “And for the record, Iamdown for a hook-up, I just…want more thanonehook-up.”

“Zane, that’s not—”

He cut in over me. “But since you’re so intent on leaving, I’ll let you leave, no more weirdness.”

“Really?” I quirked an eyebrow back at him. “Just like that?”

He shrugged. “Just like that.”

Temptation, you’re a nasty bitch.

But, I’m a strong woman, and I’ve faced temptation before. Been burned by it, too, so…yeah. I walked away.

“Nice to have met you, Zane Badd.”

“Same here, Mara.”

I walked, my head throbbing and my stomach churning with a raging hangover, following the docks, the water on my left, unsure of where I was going, because I still couldn’t remember why I’d come to Ketchikan in the first damn place. It was hard to make my exit look purposeful when I had no idea where I going, but I gave it my best, dammit.

A block, two blocks, three…I kept expecting him to appear behind me with that sexy, gruff voice of his, but he never did. He actually let me just walk away.

The bastard.