Page 42 of Far From Sherwood Forest

When movement in my periphery has me turning my head to see Henry walking around the corner into the aisle of the grocery store I’m standing in, it feels like maybe that magic from before is following us again.

Now’s my chance.

Henry takes one look at me, scowls, and turns right back around.

I roll my eyes. He told me to watch my back, but he’s been the least terrifying threat I’ve had hanging over my head these past few months.

Placing the can of soup I had just picked off the shelf into my basket, I follow after him.

“Henry!”

He doesn’t stop, turning down the next aisle without slowing.

Quickening my pace, I push past him and his cart, coming to a stop as I turn and face him. He’s forced to stop too, the cart between us. Like a line drawn in the sand.

His eyes narrow. “Get out of my way, Robin.”

I tilt my head and grin. “How about you make me?”

“Are you trying to test me again?”

“I liked it the last time I did.”

His face takes on a reddish hue, and I think it might be out of both irritation and something else. He’s been avoiding me for months, so it’s actually kind of satisfying to ruffle his feathers a bit.

Leaning over his cart, he drops his voice to that low, deep timbre that I think I’m starting to really like. “Is that why you’ve decided to annoy me today? You miss my cock, Robin? You want to be dicked down?”

He’s trying to get under my skin like I’m trying to do to him because I can hear the sarcasm in his voice. But he doesn’t know how much I want to answeryes, how much Idowant that.

Now if only I could convince him to give it to me.

“If you wanted to hate fuck me, I wouldn’t argue. Though, I might make you chase me first.”

His pupils dilate, causing his eyes to darken, a war raging in them between lust and loathing. “Fucking move. Now.”

He straightens to his full height and starts to push his cart forward, but I grab hold of the other side with my hand that’s not holding my basket.

“Look,” I say with a heavy sigh. “It’s just weird having you around and you just…ignoring me. It’s giving me whiplash when you came here hellbent ondestroyingme—yourwords, by the way. Especially after everything that happened between us.”

“So you just want attention?” He shakes his head. “I promise you don’t want it from me.”

“Maybe I do,” I tell him, hating the desperate edge in myvoice.

He stares at me for a long while, as though he’s trying to understand why the hell I’d want that. I don’t fully understand it myself.

He’s hot, sure. He also has a fucking filthy mouth that I don’t hate one bit. But the truth is I don’t really know him all that well. I didn’t know him as anything other than the Sheriff back in Sherwood Forest, and while I probably know him better here than I did there, it’s still not much.

What Idoknow is that he’s a mystery stitched from hidden cracks and shadows, untouchable yet impossible not to reach for.

Henry’s jaw clenches, and he finally says, “I told you it’s not going to happen.”

I guess I got my hopes up when he said he might not be done with me. That much is evident by my months of pining, of wanting to solve his mystery. I’d almost rather have his loathing and passionate desire for revenge directed at me again instead of the nothing I’ve had these last few months. At least that wassomething.

Look at me getting one taste of dick and throwing romance out the goddamn window.

Or maybe it’s that part of me that hates seeing Henry still kind of alone and wanting to give myself to him in whatever way he’d want me.

But it’s clear hedoesn’twant me.