some things about single men seemed to be universal, and that the tendency to only have beer and junk food on hand was one of them. Hopefully, getting out in town would ease this unpleasant tightness in her chest.
Or at least, she could find more things to distract herself from it. With one more glance at Jenner’s stony profile, his eyes fixed on the road ahead of them, Mia sighed and turned her attention to another problem on what was shaping up to be a long list of them. Tomorrow, Sunday, she was going to have to start unraveling the threads of this mess, beginning with giving herself cover for staying here for at least the week. It didn’t seem like Jenner and his buddies would accept anything less, and she was still too short on knowledge about this werewolf thing to comfortably skip town. Unfortunately, it looked like her banked vacation days were going to take a serious hit.
The thought made her sick to her stomach, which gave her an idea.
“Stomach flu,” she muttered.
“What?” Jenner looked sharply at her.
She looked over at him, at the sudden concern stamped onto his bold, handsome features, with a sort of rueful amusement. Nothing like the mention of vomit-inducing germs to get a guy’s attention. Especially when the guy in question was taking you to dinner.
Those sparks her temper had been shooting off started to catch.
“Oh,” Mia said, careful to keep her tone impassive. “Are we speaking again? I was trying to figure out a plausible excuse for being out of work all this coming week. Because otherwise, I’m going to get fired.”
He turned his eyes back to the road, but not before she saw a hint of guilt in his expression. It wasn’t nearly as satisfying as she’d hoped. But at least her comment had broken through Jenner’s silent brooding. She wished she wanted to do more than snarl at him now that it had, but an afternoon of being made to feel like a perpetrator instead of a victim had taken its toll. And to make matters worse, Jenner didn’t appear to understand her frustration.
“We did talk about the job thing, Mia,” he said without looking at her, sounding as though he was lecturing a difficult child. “You’re not going to want to stay alone in the city after...all of this. And what do you mean, are we speaking again? I didn’t think we’d stopped.”
Mia slowly tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, inhaling deeply. The anger reared its head before she could talk herself out of it, before she could silence it. The speed with which her mood went from irritable to furious would have shocked her, if she’d been able to do more than cruise on the dark fire that flooded her system at Jenner’s words. Everything she’d been put through since last night, the betrayal, the violence, and then the havoc Jenner’s very existence seemed to play with her emotions, coalesced into a singular fury and directed itself at the nearest available target.
She struggled to get out the words in something less than a shout.
“What I mean,” she said, her voice quavering only slightly with the effort, “is that ever since you kissed me earlier and then took off, you’ve barely said two words to me. Since I didn’t throw myself at you, and since I’m assuming you helped decide to keep me at your house until this mess is worked out, it would be great if you could stop treating me like I’ve got the plague.”
There was a moment of silence that stretched out painfully. Finally, Jenner managed one word.
“Oh.”
That single word burned right through her. Especially because Jenner didn’t seem inclined to immediately add to it. It wasn’t like her to let her emotions get the better of her. But there was something more, something unfamiliar fanning her feelings like a prairie fire in a high wind.
“Oh?” Mia snapped. “That’s it? You kiss me senseless, take off, pretend it never happened, and when I call you on it all you can say is oh?”
Jenner slid a sidelong glance at her, a slight frown marring his brow.
“I’m trying to figure out what to say about it that isn’t going to make me sound like an ass. I didn’t realize it had pissed you off so badly.”
“You didn’t realize...”
Mia repeated those words in astonishment, trying to calm herself down a little. But...he hadn’t known? Did he think she just wouldn’t care? Her skin tingled, her pulse quickened.