There hadn’t been time for her to have any expectations about what she would do when she saw him again, or what he would look like. If what had happened last night would show on his face. If he’d bother to explain himself. But now he stood in the doorway, filling it completely, fully dressed and ominously big and very silent.
Joey almost ordered him out, detesting her half-dressed vulnerability. The words wouldn’t come. Instead, she stared at him, face hot with anger and embarrassment—and other emotions too appalling to bear thinking about. Even after what had happened, his mere presence did things to her that made her want to scream in unabashed rage.
Perhaps she would have given in to her impulse if Luke had said or done a single thing to provoke it. But he merely stood there, gazing at her with absolute blankness, not looking at her bare skin or reacting to her hostility. He dropped his amber eyes long before she could begin to engage him in yet another contest of wills.
“Breakfast is ready. I’ll take you back to town after you’ve eaten.” For a moment he paused, looking back up at her under his brows as if he debated more personal words. Then he turned on his heel and left her staring after him.
If Joey’s anger had been hot before, it had become a veritable blaze now. She swore in a way that shocked even herself and pulled the rest of her clothing on with savage jerks. He wasn’t going to get away with that—no, not a second time. She would make him tell her what was going on even if she had to risk life and limb to find out.
Luke was sitting at the small table over a bowl of oatmeal, across from a similar bowl before an empty chair. His posture, head dropped in one hand while the other stirred the oatmeal listlessly, was so alien to what she knew of him that Joey stopped to stare. It almost managed to defuse her anger. Until he looked up to see her, stiffened into rigidity, and sprang up from the chair, moving to the far side of the room as if she had a disease he didn’t want to catch.
Joey spun to face him. “I’ve had enough of this, Gévaudan. I think it’s about time you told me what the hell is going on here. Between us. If this is the way you acted with all your other girlfriends, I’m not surprised they didn’t stick around. I came all the way out here to find you, and you…”
“Eat your breakfast.” Luke’s voice was no more than the softest of whispers. He was not looking at her. His back was pressed up to the far wall, hands spread against it like an animal backed into a corner. Joey ignored the tone and the tension that twisted his imposing frame into a taut spring on the verge of release. “You aren’t going to just ignore me this time, Luke. You owe me an explanation. You told me you’d help, and then you—used me and didn’t even bother to finish what you’d started.” Her face burned with chagrin at her bluntness, but anger had taken her too far to back down now. He had rejected her.
“I can tell you nothing.” Again his voice was deadly quiet, but this time he looked at her. His eyes were wide and piercing with some nameless emotion. “Eat, and I’ll take you back to town. You won’t see me again.”
That was the last straw for Joey. The anger she felt was beyond anything she had ever experienced,.She had always prided herself on her control and rationality, her cool ability to meet every challenge. All that went out the window as if it had never existed at all.
She found herself advancing on Luke, step by step, her fists clenched before her. “I won’t see you again? Maybe I’d like that idea if you hadn’t agreed twice to help me. Now you’re going back on your word—again? What kind of man are you, Gévaudan? Maybe you’re just the kind of coward who likes to pick on anyone you think is weaker than you are. Or maybe you’re afraid of me. Is that it, Luke? You’re afraid—of me?”