I sighed. “Do you always have to be so… blunt?”
“Blunt, honest… What’s the difference? I call it like I see it. Always.” He shrugged. “You may live your life running away from anything that threatens your perfect world order, but I’ll choose authenticity over artificial bullshit any day.”
Instantly, I was enraged, all sense of exhaustion fleeing in a heartbeat. “Where the hell do you get off saying something like that to me? I do not run away from things! My world is not perfect!Obviously. Or have you not been paying attention at all these past few days?”
He sighed. “Gwen—”
“In case it slipped your mind, I was just kidnapped! And tied to a chair in a grimy basement! I could’ve died! Then, I was rescued by atotal jerk—” I glared at him, my volume scaling up at least two decibels along with my anger. “—who, for some reason known only to him, will not let me go home! Which, I will point out, is where I want to be! Because it’s the middle of the night! I’m exhausted! My wrists hurt! I’m starving! There’s dirt under my fingernails! My knees are all crusty with blood and…It. Is. Gross!”
“Gwen, you need to calm down—”
“Not to mention,” I barreled right over him. “My favorite tights are ripped to shreds — and they wereexpensive! Seriously, more money than anyone has any right to charge for a freaking pair of stockings! Frankly, I should’ve known better than to buy them in the first place, but the salesgirl was very convincing when she said they were practically indestructible! Some new composite weave that even terrorist bullets couldn’t tear through during a shoot out—”
“Gwendolyn.” Graham sidled closer to me, eyes narrowing. “I mean it—”
“But you know what? Shelied. I wasn’t even in a shoot out but they’re completely in tatters! She lied and Ifell for itand now they’re ruined, and tomorrow I should go back to that store and show her the rips because, truly, it’s not good business tolieto your customers, especially in the event that they getkidna—”
Graham — who had evidently grown tired of my semi-hysterical tirade — closed the remaining distance between us in one swift lunge. His hands planted in the leather around my head, his face angled down, and his lips pressed firmly against mine. He swallowed the second half of the wordkidnappedwith a fast, furious kiss.
My brain short circuited.
As quickly as it began, the kiss ended. In fact, I wasn’t even sure it counted as a kiss, seeing as I was too thunderstruck to participate in it. He pulled back, looping his arm over the back rest of the sofa, looking completely calm and not at all like he’d just put a stop to my sleep-deprived tantrum by quite literally kissing me silent.
“You just kissed me,” I said dumbly, when I was once again able to speak.
“Seemed like the quickest way to shut you up.”
I stared at him, bug-eyed. Surely, I’d just hallucinated that. My brain was manufacturing delusions. I was shaking, my whole body trembling head to toe. “You can’t just kiss me.”
“Too late.”
“Graham! What the— Where are you going?”
“Stay.”
Like I was a dog!
He was already up off the couch, crossing the loft to the kitchen area. I kept my wide eyes on the fireplace, trying desperately to get myself under control. I needed to get the hell out of there. ASAP. But, strangely, my limbs seemed incapable of movement no matter how many times I ordered myself to get to my feet and walk over to the door. I simply sat there, listening to the sounds of a cabinet opening, a bottle unstoppering, footsteps approaching.
When Graham reappeared, there were two lowball glasses of amber liquor in his hands. He passed one to me in silence. I accepted it, not knowing what else to do. My hands were shaking so much, the whiskey sloshed a bit as I brought it to my mouth and took a large sip. Truth be told, it was more of a gulp. It burned all the way down my throat, a hot rush of fire that exploded in my empty stomach. I immediately sipped again, knowing it would steady me once the after-burn subsided.
“Better?” Graham asked after a while.
I nodded.
“You calm?”
I nodded again, still not looking at him.
“You going to freak out?”
I shook my head.
“Good. I’d hate to have to kiss you again.”
My eyes flashed over to him, brows furrowed in a glare. “Oh, in your wildest dreams!”
His eyes were glittering with amusement and something else. Something… decidedly heated. It set off another rush of fire in my stomach, one that had nothing to do with the contents of my glass.