Free Romancing My Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens) Contemporary Romance by Melissa Foster Page B

because I’m angry.” Goddamn it . Way to ruin a good night . She drew in a deep breath as Pierce took a step back.
    “I’m a guy, Rebecca. It’s not my nature to be told to just let someone treat a woman badly.” He ran his hand through his hair as he’d done earlier. “I was trying to help. That’s all.”
    “I know you were. I just…I could have handled him. Now he thinks I couldn’t have.” That was the worst part. She was ten times stronger of a person than Martin and about a zillion times more respectful and appropriate. She hated looking weak in front of him, or that he thought she needed a fricking bodyguard.
    Pierce held his hands up. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
    “ Ugh . You don’t have to be sorry. What you did was nice. Thank you. I just…I don’t need a savior.” Rebecca wiped her eyes and shook out her hands, as if that might loosen the constriction in her chest.
    Pierce lowered his voice and closed the distance between them. “You’re right. I guess I’m used to a lot of things that are different from what you’re used to, and I’m not used to women—other than my sister and maybe my cousin Savannah—who can take on guys like that. It was my issue, not yours, and I’ll be sure to try to check my urge to help at the door from now on.”
    She crossed and uncrossed her arms, feeling like an utter fool. He was being nice and she was acting like a bitch.
    “God, Pierce. I’m sorry.” She sighed loudly. “You can take me back to my car. I…You don’t need someone like me in your life. Look at you. You’ve got your life together, and I’m just starting to piece mine back together. I overreacted and, honestly, I have no business going up against a guy like Martin even if I am capable of it. The guy’s an ass. I wish I was in a position to have just left without my check, but I’m not. I probably never will be, and that’s okay, but I don’t want to be the type of woman who makes you wonder what the hell she’s going to do next. I’m really not a rampant crazy woman who hits men or tells them off.”
    “I don’t think of you in that way.” His voice was so sincere it softened her anger.
    She looked up at the sky and closed her eyes for a second while she mentally pulled herself back together.
    “I don’t think of myself in that way either,” she admitted. “Really. I’m not that person. I mean, I am if I have to be, and unfortunately, you’ve witnessed two terrible situations in as many days, but really, I’m just a girl who lost her mother and wants to get on with her life. I want to finish school, land a job I love, and I don’t know, have some modicum of a life far away from places like this.”
    “How about if we start with the fact that I’m a man who just wants to have dinner with you. Whether or not you went up against Martin and despite the fact that I acted out of turn.”
    She had to smile at the absurdness of it all. “Gosh, Pierce. Are you really this nice of a guy, or is this all some farce?” She walked back toward the car.
    Pierce grabbed her hand and stopped her cold with his serious stare. “I assure you, I am not just this nice of a guy. I can also assure you that this isn’t a farce. I have my faults, and you’ve just seen one of them.”
    He opened the car door and she climbed in. “That was a fault?”
    He went around to the driver’s side and settled into the driver’s seat. “Yeah, it is a fault. I should have listened to you. Remember, we talked about how neither of us likes to give up control?”
    Rebecca covered her face with a groan. “Oh God. We’re going to butt heads a lot, aren’t we?”
    He drove away, leaving the city lights behind. “I don’t have a clue. Everything about you throws me for a loop.” He took her hand in his again. “And for whatever reason, I like it.”

    Chapter Six
    BY THE TIME they reached Pierce’s driveway, Rebecca’s nerves had calmed, and with the help of Pierce’s jokes, she’d shed