was stress relief for you?”
Somehow even though the water was still hot, she’d gone cold. “What was it supposed to be?”
He turned and stalked out of the shower, leaving her alone.
What had she done? What should she do? Should she apologize? All the warmth of the moment was gone and she was left exactly where she’d been before.
Alone.
chapter six
Stress relief.
Those two words had been pounding through his head ever since the moment they’d come out of her mouth.
Stress relief.
Zep stopped at the stop sign, but only briefly because it was damn near midnight and no one was on the roads. He’d gotten the call shortly after exiting the shower that should have ended in . . . well, it should have ended in a shower. It should have ended with him running the soap all over her body and having her do the same to him. He would have washed her hair, running his fingers over her scalp and getting her to purr for him. And then they would have gotten dirty all over again.
But no. It had ended the minute she’d said those two words.
Stress relief.
He didn’t feel relieved now. He felt like a fool. His brother had been right about everything. Roxie didn’t take him seriously. She viewed him as some kind of sex toy.
“That was a stop sign, you know,” she pointed out from the passenger seat.
And despite the fact that she viewed him as a warm, living blow-up doll, she didn’t trust him enough to do his job. Or maybe that was exactly the problem. “If you wanted to drive, you should have taken your own car. And this is an emergency.”
He’d gotten the call as she’d walked into the bedroom from the shower. His cell had trilled, and for a moment his heart had stopped because it had been so late, he’d worried something had gone terribly wrong.
Then he’d realized it was the police department. Major Blanchard was apparently on nights this week and he’d taken the call about another animal problem, this one out at Dixie’s place. Since Roxie had walked out with that “we should talk” look on her face, he’d figured he’d been saved by the bell because talking would likely lead to fighting, and fighting would get his butt kicked to the curb.
He didn’t want that. He needed more time. He needed to figure out how to deal with this turn of events. He’d misread her, but that didn’t mean they had to break up.
The fact that he would consider it a breakup when she obviously didn’t even think they were dating proved that Remy had been right all along.
“It’s not an emergency,” she said. When she’d offered to drive him to the site, he’d refused and told her to go to bed since he was the one being called out, not her. Naturally she’d been sitting in his truck by the time he’d gotten ready. She’d simply put her damp hair up in a bun, tossed on some clothes, and been ready to go. “Major said everyone is fine, but he wants you to take a look around the area and see if you can figure out what Dixie saw.”
“Which is probably why they called me out and not you,” he grumbled.
“I thought I could help. That light is red. You know street signs aren’t suggestions.”
He stopped and sat. No one was around but here he was, waiting for something that wasn’t going to happen because it was after midnight and no one was out. But wasn’t that a metaphor for his relationship with her? He was sitting at a red light, and even if it turned green, it wouldn’t make a difference. The road would be exactly the same.
It would go nowhere.
So why couldn’t he walk away?
“I wasn’t trying to make you mad,” she said softly. “I’m talking about what I said in the shower. Not getting in the truck. I didn’t care if I pissed you off then. I would have come with you whether you liked it or not.”
“Because you can’t trust me to do the job Armie hired me for?” He turned down the street that Dixie lived on. Luckily they weren’t far away. Maybe there really was a rougarou out there, and if there was any good in the universe, he could be murdered by it and avoid this conversation completely.
“No, because I started this case with you and I want to continue it.” She stared out the window. “We both know she thinks she