know how to make this any more clear. I have a business to run. I have children to raise. And I’m not interested in going for a drive with you, a dinner. Or lunch. Or brunch.” That got through, she thought as the smile fell away from his face. “Now I’m telling you to get out of my store.”
“You should be nicer to me, Clare. You should stop playing games with me. I could do things for you.”
“I can do for myself.” She started to step to the side, but he shot out his arm, slapped a hand on the counter and blocked her.
The first prickle of fear scraped the surface of sheer annoyance. “Stop it. What’s wrong with you?”
“You’re always too busy to spend a little time with me. But not too busy to spend plenty with Beckett Montgomery.”
“That’s my business.”
“You’re wasting your time with him. The Montgomerys, they’re nothing but blue-collar punks. I could buy and sell Beckett Montgomery.” He stepped in, put a hand on her hip, and shot twin spears of temper and fear through her when he slid it around, squeezed her ass. “I just want you to take a drive with me. Let me show you a good time.”
“Get your hands off me.” She hated the jerky sound of her voice, fought to steady it. “I’m never going to take a drive with you. I’m not interested in you or what you can buy and sell. I want you to get out of my store, and I don’t want you to come back.”
The pseudo charm switched to a bright, sharp anger that sent her heart on a gallop. “That’s no way to talk to me. It’s past time you realize a woman like you needs to be grateful, needs to show some appreciation.”
She thought of the coffee behind her, slapped one hand on his chest, reaching for the cup with the other.
Someone banged hard on the door. “Clare!” Avery, her face furious through the glass, banged again. “I need you to open the door.” She turned her head, raised a hand. “Hey, Owen! Come over here.”
Sam stepped back, shot his cuffs. “You think about what I said.”
Because her legs trembled, she pressed back against the counter. “Don’t come back here. Don’t come to my house again. Stay away from me.”
He walked to the door, flipped open the lock she didn’t realize he’d turned.
Avery bolted in when he went out. “Creep,” she yelled behind him, then shut the door hard, locked it again. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Yes. Yeah.”
“Was he actually putting moves on you? Stupid, pin-striped bastard. How many times do you have to turn him down?”
“Apparently I haven’t reached the magic number.”
“Clare, you’re shaking.” Instantly, Avery moved over to hug her, to rub her arms as she felt how cold they were. “Damn it, what did he do? He really scared you.”
“A little. Maybe a lot. Don’t tell Owen—where is Owen?”
“How the hell do I know? I just used him as a threat of a beat-down. Sam’s always been scared of the Montgomerys. What the hell was he doing in here?”
“I’m stupid, just stupid.” She went behind the counter, got a bottle of water out of the little cooler. “He said he wanted coffee, and I figured it was easier to give it to him than argue about being closed. He usually just makes a pest of himself. Today was different. He got mad, and pushy.”
She remembered the feel of his hands on her, let herself shudder it away.
“He knows I’m seeing Beckett, and that seemed to set him off.”
“Sam the creep Freemont always gets what he wants, and you’re screwing with his record. His mother just indulges the crap out of him; always has. You know there was talk about him and some woman he was dating a couple years ago.”
Clare nodded, soothed her throat with water. “That he’d knocked her around, and his mother paid her off. I thought it was just gossip. Now . . . I’m inclined to believe it.”
“You should’ve kneed him in the balls.”
“I was stupid there, too. He just took me by surprise. I was going to toss his damn coffee in his face, which wouldn’t have worked very well since I capped it.”
“Do you want to call the cops?”
“No. No, he was just being obnoxious, and creepy. He’s bound to be embarrassed since you scared him off. And I told him not to come back. He’ll have to get his damn coffee and books somewhere else.”
“Like