Crap!
“You ready?” he asked, his voice rough, which meant he was still angry. Therefore I quickly nodded.
Ren got up and pulled my seat back for me to do the same, which I did. He grabbed his suit jacket and jerked his head toward the building which was silent pissed-off Italian American badass for Get moving.
I grabbed my bag off the table and got moving.
Ren shrugged on his jacket as we went, but caught my hand tight when he was done.
I noticed that most of the other diners were dining. Only a few were looking up, and only because we were moving and caught their attention. Other than that, it seemed everyone missed the action.
Thank God for that plant.
Ren kept hold of me until he opened my door and angled me into his Jag. He got in, started her purring, pulled out and headed home. Even though the air still weighed heavily making it hard to breathe, he drove like he normally drove which was casually, a little fast, but in total control.
I sat next to him while he did it, wondering how to handle this situation. I wasn’t certain silence was best. I also wasn’t certain, since clearly my “business” had interrupted our fabulous evening, if he was mad at Zach, or me, or both, and if both, which one more.
What I was certain of, and I did not care even a little bit what this said about me, was that what Ren did was all kinds of freaking hot.
So I also sat next to Ren fighting squirming because I was all kinds of turned on.
With all this on my mind, alas, we made it home in heavy silence without me saying a word, which I decided was good. Whatever we said would be in his house and everyone knew it was better to have it out in a house, not a car. A car was too confining and if tempers flared, that was bad if the one with the temper flaring was driving.
And as you know, Ren’s temper could totally flare.
Ren was at my door before I fully folded out of the car. He helped me the rest of the way, threw my door to, and guided me up to his house, beeping the locks on his car. He let my hand go when he opened his front door but put his to the small of my back to guide me in.
I went in and dropped my bag on the couch. I turned on a light on an end table and turned to face Ren to see he was tossing his jacket to a chair.
“Honey—” I started.
He lifted a hand to me.
Shit.
The Hand from Ren.
I didn’t like it, but I thought it prudent to shut my mouth.
He dropped his hand and spoke.
“In making the decision to take you as you take me, it was not lost on me that my concerns about you doin’ what you’re doing were valid. There are going to be times, like tonight, that your work will leak into our life. Therefore it was not lost on me that I’d have to deal with that. I dealt with it. It’s over. If it’s something we need to discuss, I’ll trust you to explain that to me. But that ass**le was not a threat, just a nuisance who, from the little he said, jacked up his own life but blames you. What I’m sayin’ is, he does not deserve our time to discuss it.”
This was all good.
Really good.
Still.
“Are you angry with me?” I asked quietly.
“No, I’m angry that we had a great night, that jackass tainted it and I got f**kin’ blood on my sleeve.”
I pressed my lips together, but I did this in order not to laugh.
I unpressed them to say, “I’ll get the Shout out.”
“Good idea,” he muttered irately.