“Really?” Livy watched him a moment before she began to move forward, matching him step for step.
“And why don’t you think it’s a good idea?” she asked.
“It’s just not a good idea. We should just stay friends.”
Vic kept moving, and Livy kept tracking him around the kitchen. He felt like a cobra she’d locked on.
Livy gave a very small shrug. “You don’t think I’m pretty. Is that it?”
“Are you kidding? You’re gorgeous.”
“You think I’m gorgeous?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
He looped around the island and she was right with him.
“You think my shoulders are too wide?” she asked. “Make me look too square?”
“Your shoulders work fine because you’ve got that long, sloping neck, and surprisingly long legs for your height.”
“Tits too small?”
“Perfect for your size.”
“Think it’s tacky I used tits instead of breasts?”
“Actually, I thought it was kind of sexy.”
Vic’s back suddenly collided with a corner and before he could maneuver out of it, Livy slapped her hands on the counter on either side of him.
Livy gazed up at him. “Can I ask you a question, Vic?”
“If you really have to.”
“Do I make you nervous?”
“Not exactly . . . unless I made you mad and have no way to protect my eyes and major arteries.”
“You know,” she went on, “Toni thinks you’re shy. But I don’t.”
“You don’t?”
“No. I don’t think you’re comfortable around people, but that’s not the same as shy. You’re not desperate to be around people but emotionally unable to connect. You just want people to leave you alone most of the time.”
“Okay.”
“Just like most bears. And the longer I’ve gotten to know you, the more I realize that you live bear.”
“I live bear?”
“Yeah. You live like a bear, which makes me wonder about the feline in you. I mean, Novikov has that weird suddenly growing mane thing he does when he’s angry. But I haven’t seen that with you. I haven’t seen a true, outward sign of your feline side.”
“What is your point, Olivia?”
“I just want you to tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“Is the problem that you live like a bear”—she leaned in, lowered her voice even more—“but fuck like a cat? And is that what has you completely freaked out right now? Because the cat in you is the side you can’t control?”
Vic worked hard not to take his eyes off Livy, not to look away. Not to show her any weakness or that there was any truth to her words at all. But she did look away . . . and down at his crotch.
When she finally looked back at his face, she didn’t smirk. She grinned.
“Yeah,” she sighed out, her voice triumphant. “That’s what I thought.”
CHAPTER 15
Vic grabbed Livy by her upper arms and Livy wondered if he was going to pull her close to kiss her or slam her facedown on the kitchen island so he could fuck her raw. She was definitely up for either.
Sadly, Vic did neither. He simply moved Livy out of his way and practically ran out of the kitchen.
Yep. You spooked him, she thought as she followed after him.
True. It wasn’t the first time she’d freaked out a man. In fact, in the past, freaking out men had been something she’d often done for fun. But she’d thought she had a better connection with Vic. Had always thought he’d understood her and liked her despite that understanding.
She guessed she was wrong.
Livy made it into the hallway leading to the front door. Vic was already at the door, but seemed suddenly confused with basic lock operation.
“Vic,” she called out, walking toward him, “you don’t have to leave. I promise to—”
Livy stopped talking, her face too busy grimacing at seeing Vic Barinov finally manage to open the front door but also slam it into his head.
He snarled in pain and stumbled back, and Livy walked quickly to his side. But by the time she reached him, blood was already dripping down his face from where he’d split his forehead open.
She took hold of his forearm with one hand and closed the door with the other.
“I’m fine,” he kept saying. “I’m fine. I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. And I’m not about to send you out into the Massachusetts cold while you’re bleeding from the head. I’m not that big a bitch.”
Vic gazed down at her, his left eye blinking excessively because of the blood that was dripping into it. “You’re not a bitch. Who told you that you’re a bitch?”
“Really, Barinov? That’s what you’re worried about?”
Livy pulled Vic down the hall and into the living room. She pushed him onto the couch and studied the wound. “Stay here,” she ordered.
In the first-floor bathroom, Livy dug up a first-aid kit, clearly created for both human and shifter since she found muzzles of several sizes as well as bandages and pain ointment.
Shaking her head, Livy ignored the muzzles, grabbed several large towels, and returned to the living room.
“Get up,” she ordered Vic. He stood and she placed one of the bigger towels under him. “That way we won’t get blood on it,” she explained as she pushed him back onto the couch.
Livy silently cleaned up the wound and Vic’s face. Although his skin had split where the door had hit him, it hadn’t done any major damage from what she could see. He would, however, have to suffer through a lump on his head for a little bit.
And while Livy worked, Vic watched her. Closely.
Finally, when Livy was nearly done, Vic said, “Well . . . this is awkward, huh?”
“No.”
“You don’t think this is awkward?”
“No.”
She opened up an oversized adhesive bandage. She stepped in close so that she could place it perfectly over his wound. She rested the palms of her hands on either side of his head and carefully lowered the bandage with the tips of her fingers. She’d nearly placed the adhesive part against Vic’s skin when he snapped, “How can you not think this is awkward?”
Livy jerked back. “Do you want me to lie and say I feel awkward? I can do that.”
“I never want you to lie to me,” he muttered.
“Okay.” Livy moved back, her legs straddling one of Vic’s so that she could get in close.
And again, she’d nearly placed the bandage, when he snarled, “I just don’t understand how you cannot think this is strange after what just happened.”
Livy closed her eyes. She’d placed the bandage but now it was crooked, part of his wound exposed. And, even if his wound had been covered, the obsessive photographer in her could never have let that stand.
So, Livy ripped the bandage off Vic’s head and reached for another one.
“Ow!”
She slapped the fingers he was about to use to touch his swollen head. “Don’t touch.”
After removing a new bandage from the packaging and peeling off the paper that protected the adhesive, she looked directly at Vic and said, “Don’t say a word until I’m done. Understand me?”
“Yes.”
Livy again took up her position straddling Vic’s leg and carefully placed the bandage. Once it was on and it was perfect, she let out a sigh and began to back away from the big idiot. But before she’d pulled more than an inch away from him, Vic’s arm wrapped around her waist. He didn’t say anything, though. He just kept her there.
“We’re okay, Vic,” she told him, assuming he was still bothered about what this would do to their friendship.