“About an hour. The minute Bobby walked in, I took off.”

“Why didn’t you wake me when you got here?” I asked.

“I was pissed. I needed to calm down before I talked to you.”

“You could calm down lying na**d in bed with me?” I queried in disbelief.

“Lots of ways to work through anger, Jules, and I’m learnin’ that I like the way you work through it a lot.”

I blinked at him. Then I remembered the grin I thought I saw before he slid inside me.

“You knew we were going to have sex,” I breathed as the realization hit me

I caught the grin this time, full-on.

My body tensed and my blood started pumping through my veins. “How could you know we were going to have sex? We were broken up!” I shouted, trying to pull away but his arms got tight and his brows drew together.

“We weren’t broken up. I was givin’ you time to get your head sorted,” he said.

Um.

What?

“We were broken up,” I repeated.

“We weren’t,” he repeated right back at me.

“We most certainly were,” I snapped.

“Jules, for f**k’s sake, you don’t kiss a woman that you’ve broken up with good-bye.”

This gave me pause for reflection because it made sense.

Still.

Before I could say anything, he went on. “At the cabin, we made up.”

“At the cabin, we were saying good-bye.”

He stared at me for a beat then his brows unknitted and he started laughing.

Laughing!

I yanked back and gained some space. He yanked me forward and took it away.

“This isn’t funny, Crowe,” I snapped.

“You think you f**k four times to say good-bye?” he asked through laughter.

This gave me pause for reflection too because I had to admit, it sounded pretty ridiculous.

I didn’t tell him that.

I tried a different tactic. “Why didn’t you call me if we were still together?”

“Hard to give you space and call you.”

Then something else hit me and my eyes narrowed. “You thought I’d let Luke kiss me when you and I were together?”

“You let Luke kiss you and put his hands up your shirt,” Vance corrected me.

“Whatever,” I said.

His eyes flashed. “Not whatever.”

“I thought we were broken up.” Now my voice was louder.

“I know that now. I thought you were workin’ through shit, experimenting.”

Oh my God.

He did not just say that.

“Experimenting?” My voice was no longer loud, it was quiet, soft and seriously pissed off.

I’d just gone through all sorts of hell, nearly got emotionally chewed to shit by my Rottweiler and through all that, he thought we were still together and he was just giving me space. Not only that, he thought I was the kind of woman who’d “experiment” with another guy.

I took a deep breath to calm myself.

Then…

I lost my mind.

I pulled out of his arms and sat up, wrapping the sheet around me and twisting toward him. “I’m not fifteen years old, Vance, experimenting with every hot guy who comes along! Why didn’t you tell me you were giving me space?”

He came up after me and twisted to face me. “Calm down, Jules,” he said.

“Fuck calm and answer me.”

“Jules –”

I forgot I demanded an answer and kept ranting, so in a snit that I forgot to think about what I said. “I’ve been freaking out for three days. I thought I’d broken up with you and you’d let me. I thought we were over and you weren’t going to try and get me back. Everyone thinks it!” I yelled.

His arms came around me, pulled me to him and I pulled back. We tussled. This of course ended with me flat on my back, head on the pillows and Vance’s body pinning mine to the bed.

“Get off me,” I shouted in his face.

“Quiet, Jules, and listen to me.”

“I don’t want to listen to you,” I snapped.

His eyes flashed, his face changed and his hands went to either side of my head and he held my face to look at him.

“Quiet,” he ordered low and my whole body stilled at his tone and the look on his face.

When he had my attention, he started talking. “You freaked when you got the flowers and the way you told me it was over, I knew you needed that and was willin’ to give it to you but I was takin’ one last night. You agreed. I used that night to get you to stop thinkin’ crazy and pushin’ me away and it worked.”

“It didn’t.”

“You started redecorating my cabin, you thanked me for the flowers, you let me make love to you in the moonlight and again in the morning. You showered with me, you held on tight on the bike when I brought you home. Is that the behavior of a woman who’s just broken up with you?”

Hmm.

He had a point.

“You didn’t call me for three days,” I kept at it.

“I was workin’ and it’s been intense between us. You freak out any time I get close. You needed space to get your head together. I backed off for a few days and gave it to you.”

Okay, that made sense. It was even nice.

Still.

“I do not freak out,” I snapped.

He raised his brows.

Fuck!

I was freaking out as we talked.

I glared at him because I didn’t have a leg to stand on and I knew it but my pride wouldn’t let me admit it out loud. He watched me then his face started to go soft and sexy and I knew that he knew my thoughts.

Vance Crowe totally had my number.

Damn.

Time to move on.

“All right, well… whatever.” It was weak but I didn’t know what else to say.

I caught his grin definitely this time before his face disappeared into my neck. He knew he’d won in more ways than one.

“Next time I give you space, I’ll tell you,” he said into my neck.

I didn’t want there to be a next time. This last time was bad enough. I didn’t share that with him however.

His mouth moved on my neck and then came to mine and he kissed me, soft and quick and my freak out started to melt away. Then he lifted his head.

“Go to work. I’m tired and need sleep,” he said softly, his face an inch from mine.

“That didn’t take long,” I said, kind of snotty but not really meaning it, “we’re back to macho-speak.”

“Go to work,” he replied, knowing I didn’t mean it.