“Why are you following me? Are you some kind of perv who gets his kicks scaring women?”
He shrugged. “Call me whatever you want. I don’t like the thought of anyone walking home alone in the dark, even if Lenexa is the last safe town on the face of the earth. I…I wanted to make sure you got home.”
That wasn’t quite what I expected. “I can take care of myself,” I answered coldly, and turned around.
“I believe you.”
I started walking. His footsteps picked up as well.
“I don’t need some chauvinistic pig thinking I can’t take care of myself, that I’ll fall apart because I don’t have a man to take care of me,” I tossed over my shoulder.
“I’d never think that.”
I whirled back around. “Right. I believe you said, oh, a mere twenty minutes or so ago that you didn’t want some pathetic woman in your bed crying over the man who dumped her. In other words, that’s what I would do. Like I’d go to bed with you in the first place.”
I tossed my head. Ha! Top that one!
“That’s not what happened,” he said. His footsteps quickened, and he caught up with me right as I stepped out of the light and back into shadows. “I said I don’t want to deal with anyone who might think I can replace some guy she no longer has.”
“Same difference.” I sped up. So did he.
“No, it’s not. Look…”
There was that damned word again. He grabbed my arm. I jerked away from him, but stopped the mini jog I’d started and actually faced him. The moon caught a small bit of his eyes. They sparkled in the shadow.
“For some reason Jin thinks I’m lonely and need a woman in my life.”
I hedged. I could totally see that being true.
“She’s been trying to me up with anyone she can think of…”
I scoffed. “So I’m the latest choice in a chain of bad ones, I suppose. You charmer, you. It’s a wonder none of those dates have worked out.”
He smiled. “You’re the first one who’s been remotely enticing, but you gotta admit you come with a seriously wounded heart.”
Enticing? Did he call me enticing? Oh wait, make that remotely enticing. I resumed my walk.
He strode alongside me. “I suppose if I’d met you before…”
“We did meet, remember? There was a steeple? A white silk runway? You wore a tux, I wore some horrid floral number? Oh, and Jin and Tony got married. Ring a bell?”
“Met you when I was ready to meet someone like you. Not a nineteen-year-old kid, but me, now. And you now. Only you before the bruises.”
“You’re a real peach. Anyone ever tell you that? Sweet and juicy on the inside, with a warm, fuzzy exterior.”
He laughed again. A deep belly laugh. “Peach, no. Prick? Often.”
“Prick, huh? Thorny. Annoying. Draws blood on a regular basis. Appropriate.”
