Free Nameless Series Boxed Set by Claire Kent Page B

to see them, were smoldering...and not in a good way.
    “Hey,” she said
in a friendly voice, trying to fend off any unpleasantness. “What’s up? What
are you doing here?”
    Seth’s eyes
shifted intentionally to her date. Scanned him from head to toe in an arrogant,
dismissive way. Then stared for a moment at where she still held her date’s arm
before pinning Erin with his gaze. “I should think that would be obvious, since
I was knocking on your door.”
    Then he
continued, biting each word out distinctly, “But what exactly are you doing?”
    Erin swallowed.
Resigned herself to the end of her pleasant, giddy day.

Four
     
    Erin took a deep breath and
tried to remain calm, not wanting to create a scene that her date could retell to
all of her neighbors. “Excuse me?” she asked, giving Seth a look of cool
disinterest.
    His eyes
flickered over her knee length skirt and low cut top, but then he shifted his
gaze over to the man beside her. “Maybe I should apologize,” Seth pronounced
with exaggerated formality. He held out his hand. “I guess my presence here
interferes with your plans for tonight.”
    Her date
blinked several times and stared speechlessly, even as he automatically reached
out to shake Seth’s hand.
    Erin groaned
out loud. “For God’s sake.”
    Her date was
darting his eyes between her face and Seth’s, and finally he said awkwardly,
“Uh, maybe I should just get going.”
    “Excellent
plan,” Seth replied, nodding approvingly.
    Rolling her
eyes, Erin tightened her fist so she wouldn’t follow her impulse and swat Seth
across the side of his head. She’d wanted to get rid of her date anyway, so Seth
hadn’t seriously inconvenienced her. His rudeness merely made the parting more
abrupt than she would have chosen. She would tell Seth off for his arrogance
and presumption, of course, but she would do so privately.
    No use making
this encounter any more awkward than it already was.
    Turning her
back to Seth purposefully, she faced her date instead. Murmured, “I’m sorry
about this, but I had a really nice time.”
    The guy smiled
at her faintly. “Yeah. Me too.”
    Giving him a
warmer grin than she would have done had Seth not been watching her, she stood
on her tiptoes and kissed the guy softly on the side of his mouth. “I’ll see
you later.”
    She could feel Seth
seething silently behind her as she said goodbye and stood watching as her date
walked back down the hall.
    Then she stiffened
her shoulders and turned back around. “What the fuck are you doing
here?”
    “Looking for
you,” Seth answered coldly.  “I spent three hours trying to reach you. So I
started to get worried and came over to make sure you were all right.” He
paused and tightened his lips. “Only to find out that—not only were you all
right—but you were actually out—”
    “Out doing what?
What exactly are you accusing me of?”
    He seemed to
have coiled up his anger again, and the icy power had faded from his eyes. His
voice more composed and reasonable, he suggested, “Maybe we should go inside to
discuss this.”
    Erin didn’t
budge. “I don’t want you inside my apartment.”
    “Well, don’t
hold me responsible if you read a transcript of this entire conversation on that
ridiculous gossip site.”
    Erin had been
working up some good righteous anger, but at this her momentum jerked to an
abrupt halt. Unfortunately, Seth had a point. Any one of her neighbors could be
listening at their doors or looking out their peepholes.
    If there was
any sort of juicy gossip about him, verified or not, Mary Carlyle would publish
it.
    Swallowing in
annoyance, she unlocked her door and allowed him to follow her in.
    When she’d shut
and locked the door again, she turned back toward him. “Now,” she began,
feeling tired and resigned rather than truly angry, “say what you want to say
and get out of here.”
    This seemed to
surprise him. He stared at her blankly.
    “I believe you
were about to call