He grabbed most of their things from the trunk before slamming it shut and stalking towards the bottom level of his three story house. He unlocked the door and quickly disarmed the alarm. His little recluse reluctantly followed and when she looked around the garage filled with his black Mustang and his motorcycles her brows creased in confusion.

“This way,” he said, shutting the door and resetting the alarm once again before walking past his bikes to the door that led to the second level of his home.

When he stepped off the stairs he dumped their things on one of the leather couches as he walked through the living room and headed towards the kitchen section of the large open area. He grabbed an ice cold beer out of the fridge, popped the top and leaned back as he watched his little recluse stop in the middle of the living room and slowly look around.

“Am I renting someone’s house while they’re away?” she asked, sounding so damn hopeful.

“Nope,” he said, letting the word pop as he watched her.

“This is your house?” she asked, looking anywhere but at him.

“Mmmhmm,” he said, taking a sip of his beer.

“Is there perhaps a chance that we’re merely stopping here on the way to my new place?”

“Not a chance in hell,” he said, watching her reaction.

“Oh,” she said, her shoulders drooping a bit as she opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out.

“Awkward, huh?”

“You could say that,” she mumbled.

“We had to get your stuff out of there quickly. We stored your stuff here and planned to have a place set up for you by the time you returned, but we had to cut the tour short. We don’t have a place set up for you yet,” he explained before taking another sip of his beer, his eyes never leaving hers.

“Oh,” she said weakly.

“I just happen to live alone and have plenty of room so I thought I’d let my girlfriend stay with me, but it seems that she just dumped my ass not even ten minutes ago so now we’re stuck in a very awkward situation,” he said, placing his beer on the counter before he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her.

“Is there any chance that you can give me a ride to my car wherever it is so that I can find a hotel for night?” she asked.

He shook his head as he said, “No way in hell. You’re staying here until this ass**le is caught.”

“I-I c-can take care of myself!” she sputtered, but he wasn’t buying it.

“No,” he simply said, pushing away from the counter and walked into the living room.

“What the heck do you mean ‘no’?” she demanded, following after him as he scooped up her bags and headed down the hall and up the second flight of stairs. He didn’t have to look back to know that she was following him. He paused by the first guest room, but it wouldn’t do. He walked down the hall and shoved open the door to the master bedroom and set her things down. As he stood up he spotted her boxed belongings piled in the corner and nearly groaned. Leave it up to Rick to take the initiative and screw him over.

“You didn’t answer me,” she pointed out as she joined him in the room.

“And I’m not going to. You’re staying here and that’s final.”

“That’s not your decision,” she snapped, coming up behind him.

“Yes, it is,” he said more calmly than he felt as he headed for the door. “This is your room while you stay. Make yourself comfortable.”

“I’m not staying,” she said, picking up her bags and nearly toppling over under the weight.

“Yes, you are, Jamie. If you try to leave I’ll just drag your cute little ass right back here.”

“That’s kidnapping!”

“Call it whatever you want, Jamie, but you’re not going anywhere right now,”

he said, heading for the door only to have his little recluse drop everything and rush to cut him off.

When he moved to step past her she held up her hands in a staying motion.

“Look, I appreciate your concern. I really do, but I can’t stay here. I just can’t. So if you could just tell me where my car is I can call a taxi and make some arrangements to have my things removed and then I’ll never bother you again.”

“No,” he said firmly, moving again to walk past her, but the damn woman wasn’t having it. It actually surprised him that she wasn’t backing down.

“I really need to leave, Nick. Please just-“

Something in him snapped. While he couldn’t get enough of her she wanted nothing to do with him. Worse, she couldn’t get away from him fast enough. He moved forward, crowding her until she had no choice but to back up. When her back hit the wall he caged her in by slapping his palms against the wall as he leaned into her.

“Why?”

“Why what?” she asked, licking her lips nervously as she glanced towards her right and probably what she deemed as freedom.

“Why the hell are you so eager to get away from me, Jamie? Hmm? Tell me exactly what I did to set this off,” he demanded, leaning in to run his nose over her neck, inhaling her sweet scent.

“You didn’t do anything, Nick. It was just time. Please just let me go,” she said, putting her hands on his shoulders, moving to push him away but instead she clutched almost desperately to him.

“Why the hell are you doing this to me?” he whispered hoarsely as his hands clenched tightly into fists.

“I’m not doing anything to you. I-“

“Bullshit!” he snapped, pulling back slightly and slamming his fists against the wall, damaging the drywall and scaring the hell out of his little recluse.

“I’m not doing anything to you!”

“Yes, you are!” he snapped, glaring down at her.

“What exactly am I doing to you? You’re the one who decided that this wasn’t going to go past the tour. It ended early and so did we. I accepted it so why can’t you?”

“Because I f**king love you!” he shouted.

As soon as the words were out he wanted to take them back. He opened his mouth to do just that, but he realized that he couldn’t. He loved her. He was head over heels in love with this woman and he knew it was pointless to deny it. Where other women had failed, his little recluse had not only succeeded in bringing him to his knees, but once he was down she dropped kicked him in the balls for good measure.

This hurt so f**king bad, he thought as he struggled for control. She didn’t love him, didn’t want him. She wasn’t the pathetic one, he was. He’d only loved two women in his life and both of them could have cared less, first his mother and now Jamie.

He didn’t want to love her. A long time ago he closed his heart off and it should have damn well stayed closed. She had no f**king business making him fall in love with her, he thought bitterly even as he reached for her and how f**ked up was that? He knew that she didn’t love him, but he couldn’t help but hope, pray really that she cared at least a little bit for him to take the edge off the tightness in his chest.

“No, you don’t!” she cried, shoving him away.

“Yes, I do!” he snapped back, reaching for her again only to have her weakly slap his hands away.

“You can’t!”

“Why the hell not?” he demanded.

“Because you’ll get yourself killed, you jackass!” she snapped back and not even a second later she slapped both of her hands against her mouth as her eyes widened in surprise at what she probably thought was profanity since he noticed that she didn’t swear or the fact that she’d just said a little too much.

“What did you just say?” he asked, stepping in front of her as she tried to head back down the hall and the hell away from him.

“Nothing,” she mumbled, trying to get past him, but he refused to move.

“It didn’t sound like nothing to me, Jamie. What did you say?” he asked, not allowing himself to hope that maybe, just maybe she cared about him too.

“Just let me go, Nick. Please!”

Let her go? There was no way in hell that he was going to let that happen.

Not now. Not when there was a possibility that for once someone loved him back.