to care for the thing. There was too much attraction with completely wrong circumstances.
Z knocked.
"Go away."
"Fiona, come on. This is my home, and I need to take a shower."
"Then I'm never coming out," she said petulantly from the other side.
Z rolled his eyes. He could break it down, but fitting a door into a cave like this was no small feat. He'd be damned if he was going to mess up so many hours of labor only to have to redo it. He'd built this place with his own hands. There was no way he was going to destroy it in a rage just because a witch was getting under his skin.
"Tell me what I did wrong. Do you think it would be right to take advantage of you?"
"I'm not a child!"
Z growled, almost shifting. He needed to hunt something. His nerves were already on edge. He'd come straight home when the sun had risen, and this was the thanks he got.
A few minutes passed when she said, "I want to go home."
"You said you'd help me. For God's sake, Fiona. I'll be out of your hair tomorrow morning. You won't have to deal with me. And when I find the pup's family, you can go home."
"What if something happens to you? I'll be trapped here. You won't let me have my books and tools. What about access to a computer so I can get to my money? What about my job? If I don't log in tomorrow, they might fire me. You've made me helpless while you run out to who knows where."
This was why he wasn't good with women, why he only had one-night stands. He didn't think things all the way through sometimes. Any woman who spent more than a single night with him would figure that out and run screaming in the other direction.
And who was he kidding? Fiona wasn't a bad witch. She didn't have a mean bone in her body. She wasn't going to hex him. So why had he acted like he had? As if she were some kind of magical terrorist. He'd known from the moment he'd met her that she wasn't a danger to him. He could smell the sweetness on her. And that was part of the problem.
"I'm sorry. I'll go to your house and get your stuff. Just make me a list of what you need."
She opened the door and poked her head out. His heart clenched at her tear-stained face. All in all, she was taking all the shit he'd put her through pretty well.
"You'd do that?"
Z nodded. "I should have let you have the stuff you needed to feel protected. It was wrong and selfish for me not to." He was just going to skim right past the chloroform and kidnapping bit.
"Okay."
"Now can I have a shower and breakfast first?"
She nodded, wiping her face with the back of her hand, a sudden embarrassment seeming to come over her. The alien notion that he should reach out and comfort her in some way popped into his mind. But he couldn't bring himself to touch her again. Still, her arm bumped him as she passed, and he felt the physical chemistry that crackled between them. Could she not feel that?
But she left him standing there. The pup followed behind her like a guard dog and growled back at him.
In the shower, Z scrubbed himself raw, the self-recriminations pounding through his head. He was right not to sleep with her. She was far too innocent. And he couldn't take care of her the way she needed. Not that he thought she was helpless. Despite her peculiar issues, she wasn't a weakling. She'd shown surprising courage and calm in the face of her circumstances. Z thought she was much stronger than she knew. It mystified him that she couldn't see that and leave the self-created prison her house had become.
No, he couldn't take care of her in the way any man would want to take care of the right woman. There was no right woman for Z. Any woman he met, he spoiled and screwed up for whoever her right man was, and all in the space of a single night. He always did have impressive talents.
After he finished beating himself up, he indulged in a morning wank. Generally, any random image of any random woman would do. Today it was Fiona in his head. He switched between lust and guilt, but lust won out. When he finished, he scrubbed some