“Where the fuck are you going?”
“Um…” I hedged, not really wanting to piss him off further. “Inside?”
He shook his head.
My eyes narrowed.
“You’re sleeping at my place,” he said in a tone that told me arguing would be futile. “We have shit to discuss. Privately. If that discussion gets loud, I don’t want to do it in a motel with paper-thin walls.”
He anticipatedyelling?
That was not exactly an enticement to go with him. I had no intentions of stepping even a pinky toe inside his place, seeing as I had no clothes there and no desire to spend the night with someone whose general disposition brought to mind a ticking time bomb. However, I had a feeling any protests to that effect would fall on deaf ears.
Cade was not in a listening mood. Determination was etched across his features. I saw it in the set of his jaw, the clench of his teeth, the deep fissure between his flinty blue eyes. In a bid to avoid poking the bear and further provoking his fury, I made my voice as mellow as possible.
“I can’t sleep at your place, Cade. I don’t have any clothes there.”
He contemplated this for zero-point-three seconds, then released my wrist. His eyes remained locked on mine as he shifted across the center console, into my space. It took all my courage not to cower back against the leather seat as he came closer. And closer. And still closer, until he wasright freaking there, a scant inch away.
“Then pack,” he ordered tersely.
“Pack?”
He gave a shallow nod. “Pack your shit. You’re staying with me.”
“I am not staying with you!” I declared, immediately deciding I would, in fact, poke the bear because the bear was being kind of a bossy dickhead, at the moment.
“Goldie, you already are. Or have you forgotten you spent the past two nights in my bed?”
Shit.
He had a point there. But I wasn’t about to admit it. “That’s different.”
“How?”
“Why would I check out early?” I countered. “I have two more nights here. I prepaid for a full week.”
“Yeah, and you aren’t paying for another one.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’m currently working eighteen-hour days, and I’d like to spend the handful of free hours I get to myself not chasing you down at notorious biker bars or two-star motels with flimsy door locks. I’d like to know when I’m coming home at night that the best part of my day is already waiting for me in my bed, wearing one of my t-shirts, cuddled up with my dog.” He was still glaring at me, hard and uncompromising. “You get me?”
My mouth had fallen open. I closed it with an audible click of my teeth. Long before I’d recovered my composure, he starting talking again.
“You can either pack or I’ll go upstairs and pack for you.”
My eyes bugged out of my head. “You will not!”
“You have ten seconds to decide,” he informed me. His voice dropped to a mutter. “Wouldn’t be the first time Georgia let me borrow a key to your room.”
He was right about that. Still, I maintained my glare. “Crashing at your place is one thing. That’s just sex. If I check out…” I shook my head. “That’s insane. That’s basically likemoving in!”
He stared at me.
A semi-hysterical, panicked laugh shot from my lips. It was not a good sound. “I’m not moving in with you. For the record.”
He continued to stare at me.