Read Online Holding Her Close (Bits and Bytes, Book 0) (Bits & Bytes) by Allyson Lindt - Free Book Online Page B

and held her arm until she was seated.
    It didn't escape her he took the opportunity to watch her skirt ride up. Good. At least she wasn’t the only one this was affecting. She took her time smoothing it out again.
    An awkward silence descended between them as he pulled onto the road. A string of questions spilled through her head, some ice-breakers, others flirty, and others self-righteous indignation. She couldn't focus enough to figure out which direction she wanted to go. One slipped out without permission. “So is the ride home a clever excuse to try and get me in bed again?”
    His eyes narrowed. “This is the one and only I’ll ever say this. Never, not before, not now, not in the future, will we do anything while you’re under the influence.”
    And the niceties were gone, a nd he was throwing their past back in her face. “Nice. Bring that up again. What happened to having closure? I thought we’d moved on.”
    He glanced at her, eyebrow raised, before turning back to the road. “Right. The past is in the past.”
    “ You're lying.” So much for being flirty or diplomatic. She wondered if she could staple her lips shut when he was around. What was wrong with her? He’d rescued her and she was insulting him in return.
    He sighed and fished a pack of smokes from his shirt pocket. He stuck one to his lips and then thought better of it.
    “You can smoke in the car, I don't care.”
    “ You sure?”
    “ You wouldn't be the first.” She didn't know why he was so surprised. “Besides, you're doing me a favor.”
    “ Why do you do that?” He rolled the window down before lighting up.
    “ Do…?” She puzzled over his answer.
    “ Run hot and cold?”
    Rae stared at him, surprised by the question and the vehemence behind it. “Uh...I'm not? I don't.”
    “ You know what? I am lying. There are still things about your behavior back then that gnaw at me. Like all of it.”
    Rae's buzz was vanishing, leaving nausea in its place. Of course he was going to bring that up. It made her uncomfortable even thinking about the screaming fit she’d thrown on the docks. That day ten years ago when she’d told him off and gotten herself stuck in the middle of nowhere as a result. The way she’d been so thrown out of whack by diet and sleeping pills she couldn’t think straight.
    Then again, she hadn’t been the only one at fault, and the lessons his callous brush -off had taught her were still a part of everything she did. “Like you’ve never been stoned before.”
    He exhaled, smoke drifting out the window and vanishing in to the night. “In case you missed it that was your chance to apologize.”
    She crossed her arms and flopped back against her seat, wincing when her skull bounced off the headrest. “I'm not that person anymore.”
    “ Gee, Zach,” he said in a squeaky falsetto. “I'm sorry about what happened all those years ago. I mean, I know you told me exactly what I needed to do to make amends, but I'm a little dim sometimes. Forgive me?”
    She glared at him. She hadn't wanted this to turn ugly, but her ego was too wounded to back down. “You don't want an apology. You want to crucify me so…I actually don’t even know why.”
    “ If I succeed, that makes you a martyr, right? Why did you have to pick now to be back in my life?”
    She stared at him, disbelief throbbing in her temples. “You want me to leave and come back in a few months? Because now someone’s going to stand in your way when you crush Scott’s dreams?”
    He flicked his half -finished smoke out the window. “Excuse me?”
    “ He’s doing everything he can to keep his company together, and you’re just rolling over at every opportunity.” She’d crossed the line from personal to cruel and turned the conversation away from what they were really talking about, but she couldn’t take it back. His brush off hurt more than she wanted to recognize and she needed a change of subject to take herself out of the equation.
    Zach