Free Delta: Retribution by Cristin Harber Page B

vulnerable. They didn’t care. No one cared. Except my stupid father, who laughed and said my intelligence would kill me. He said that I was weak.”
    A boulder cropped up in his throat. “I’d never call you weak.”
    “But you do call me fairy-tale names because I—”
    He shook his head. “Because you leave me when I least want you to.”
    She shrank in on herself. “I don’t believe you.”
    “That’s your problem.”
    She scowled at him in the mirror.
    He continued, “I think you’re trying so hard to fix what your dad thought about you, to convince yourself that you’re strong, that you failed to realize you kick ass.”
    Marlena scoffed. “Now who’s crazy?”
    “Why did you go to my hotel room in Germany?”
    Her brow furrowed. “Because you’re hot.”
    That made him smile, but it wasn’t the truth. At least, not the whole truth. “Tell me.”
    She fussed with her hair, tying it, smoothing it, and taking it out again.
    “Marlena?”
    “I just…” She rolled her eyes. “Wanted to feel desired. Wanted to know if I was so awful.”
    “What did you figure out?”
    She turned and looked up through her eyelashes. “Not so awful, I guess.”
    “Woman, you came alive like nothing I’d ever seen before.” He shook his head, still buck-ass naked, and his cock twitched thinking about that night. “If anyone could make me want normal, it’d be you. I don’t think I’ve ever been more of myself than I am when inside you.”
    “Damn it, Trace.” She snagged a towel and tossed it on him. “Don’t say that. Stop saying the reasons why we work and then saying no. I already walked away. You’re the one who’s hurting me. You’re the one fucking with me. It’s selfish. Got it? Get your head out of your butt or get out.”
    She stormed out, slamming the door. It bounced off the wall, leaving him standing in her bathroom holding her towel. He wrapped the towel around his waist and trailed after her, a man on a mission. “Mar.”
    There was no answer, even though he could hear her slamming through her closet.
    “Mar.”
    “What?” She slammed both hands against his bare chest, and he caught them. “What do you have to say?”
    Good question. What could he possibly offer that wasn’t a joke?
    She laughed. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Let go of me. You should go.”
    “No.”
    She pulled back, and he released her wrists. His heart fell, knowing he let go of more than just her hands. She spun, purple housecoat billowing out, giving him a glance at what he wanted all over again. “It’s just—damn, never mind.”
    Storming back over, she slammed her balled fist into his chest. “You are driving me insane! I’m so done with this. Go the hell away.”
    “Have dinner with me?”
    Her eyes looked as though they were a breath away from popping out of her head. “Excuse me?”
    Where the hell had that beauty come from? “Dinner. Food. Walking around or whatever people do on dates.”
    “Are you asking me on a date?”
    “Yeah.”
    “That’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever said.”
    “Damn, Mar. I can’t win with you.”
    “I’m really not that hard to figure out.” She pushed her shoulders back, retied her robe, and stormed the three feet it took to get back to her closet. “Go away.”
    “I’ll be back here at seven.”
    “Not interested.”
    “See you then, Cinderella.” He walked over and kissed her cheek, completely mind-fucked and unsure why the hell he was feeling like a rock star.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
     
    Trace cracked his neck as he closed his car door. He hadn’t been on a date since high school, and those weren’t so much dates , but more like ways to get a girl alone. A date. What to do? He could hit up a restaurant, but that wasn’t necessarily his style, and dinner seemed predictable. Paintball? Maybe not her style, though he remembered her training that assault rifle at him in the jungle, and she had a pretty solid aim. If they went to a movie, he couldn’t