The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [129]
For some reason, Misty felt like smiling. She bit her lip, knowing Morgan wouldn’t appreciate it one bit. “That’s not true.”
“No? I go crazy for you, and you ignore me, then flirt outrageously with every other male in the county.”
That got her good and mad. “I did no such thing! And you ignored me first.” She hadn’t meant to bring that up; it made her sound spiteful, as if she’d ignored him to get even. She frowned at him for making her say too much.
“I tell you to leave, you argue about it. I all but beg you to stay, you argue about it.”
“I did not argue about leaving.”
“You got snide, I remember that well enough.” He rubbed his neck and groaned. “Hell, it was all I could do to keep my hands to myself, to put up with having you in the house until Sawyer’s wedding, and you just kept sniping at me, and for some fool reason that only made me want you more.”
“How could I have ignored you and sniped at you at the same time? That doesn’t make sense, Morgan.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’d snipe with silence, by being there, making me want you, then chatting with one of my disreputable brothers as if I wasn’t in the room when I knew damn good and well you were aware of me. Admit it, Malone.”
This time she gave in to the grin; she couldn’t help herself. “Admit I was aware of you? Sure. You’re a mite hard to miss, Morgan, being so big and all.”
He took another step toward her, and she backed up. In soft tones that sounded like threats rather than compliments, he said, “I admire your pride, sweetheart, I really do. But that pride is misplaced when you cut off your nose to spite your face.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means you wanted to stay here, but stubbornly refused just because I’d been a pigheaded fool and asked you to go.”
“I agreed to stay, Morgan,” she said, feeling it necessary to point that out.
“And you refused a good job, just because you thought it was created for you.”
“Uh…I took the job, too, remember?”
“I remember that I had to practically get down on my hands and knees, as well as resort to every lamebrained scheme around, to get your agreement! And you dare to say I think you’re easy?”
“Will you stop shouting at me?”
He halted. Misty had her back to a bookcase, and Morgan was only a scant inch away. “Yeah, I’ll stop shouting. As long as you promise to never again put words in my mouth.”
Because he looked so sincerely put out over it, she agreed. “I’m sorry.”
With his hands on the bookshelf level with her head, he caged her in. “Listen good, Malone, because I don’t want to have to repeat this.” His gaze dipped to her mouth, then came back to her eyes, pinning her motionless. “I do not think you’re easy. I think you’re a beautiful woman who got involved with the wrong guy and ended up in some trouble because of it. And no, I’m not talking about the pregnancy, because you’re right, that’s not real trouble. If you want the baby, then everything else will work itself out. I was talking about being blamed for the theft.”
He drew a long breath, then squeezed his eyes shut. “And I’ll have you know that even arguing with you makes me hot. I’m so damn hard right now I could be considered lethal.”
A startled laugh burst out of her, making Morgan scowl all the more. She looked at his face, then doubled over in laughter, making an awful racket but unable to help herself.
Morgan waited patiently, crossing his arms over his chest and blocking her so she couldn’t move away. His reaction made her laugh harder, and she fell against him until he was forced to prop her up.
When she finally quieted, Morgan was rubbing her back and smiling at her. “You want to tell me what brought that on?”
“You’re priceless, Morgan.”
“How so?”
He was such a reprobate. She smiled at him as she explained, aware of his hands drifting lower, almost to her behind. “You have absolutely no consideration for my modesty or my sensibilities. You talk about the most personal things—”
“Like what?”
“Like the fact you seem to have a problem with control.”
He shook his head very slowly. “Not usually. Everyone will tell