I go still at the ice in his tone. My eyes fly in Nate’s direction, surprised he was even listening to our conversation, and I find he’s glaring at me with hard eyes.
“What did you just say?” I snap, not liking that look one bit.
“Did I stutter?” He takes a few steps across the room in my direction. “You’re not leaving until this is over.”
“That sounded an awful lot like an order.”
“Probably because it was one.”
My mouth falls open. “Are you fracking kidding me?”
I admit, I may be abitcranky, what with the lack of sleep and the near death experience and the coitus interruptus just before the Big O finally made her debut… So, there’s a chance I’m more irritable than usual.
Whatever. He still shouldn’t boss me around like I’m seven years old.
His eyes narrow. “I told you not to go out with O’Pry. You didn’t listen. You never listen.” His voice gets low, lethal. “This time, you’re going to listen, West, even if I have to handcuff you to my fucking bed.”
“Hot,” Lila whispers under her breath.
“Seriously,” Gemma agrees.
I ignore them.
Huh. Turns out we still want to rip each other’s heads off, after all…
“You can’t keep me here like some kind of prisoner.” I scoff. “I have a life. A house. A dog. A job.” I rise to my feet. “I’m not staying here.”
He smirks. “You’re not leaving.”
“You can’t tell me what to do!” I whirl around and pin my friends with a look. “Come on. We’re going.”
Gemma blanches. “Phee, I really don’t think—”
I glare at her and the words die in her throat. My gaze shifts to Lila. She’s inspecting her cuticles, looking bored.
“Lila!” I snap.
“Mmmm?”
“Get up and come with me.”
“Why?”
My voice lowers. “It’s much more effective if I storm out of here with a posse.”
I hear a muffled chuckle from Chase. When my glare swivels in his direction, he adopts an innocent expression.
“Don’t look at me,” he says, holding up his hands. “I’ve got nothing to do with this.”
“I was just kidnapped,” I point out. “You guys are supposed to be catering to my every whim.”
“Really?” Lila’s nose wrinkles.
“I don’t think that’s a rule,” Gemma adds, voice speculative. “It wasn’t in the guidelines of Operation SPANK.”
“Nope,” Lila agrees. “Sure wasn’t.”
I shoot them my iciest glare. Neither seems to be affected.