on it, but I’ve cared about you for a long time. More than you know.” He stopped for a breath, and color crawled up his tan cheeks. Frank looked wild and desperate, and Kuri had no idea why.
Frank stared at her harder. “Oh, and I forgot.” His arm had been behind his back, and he wound it around to show her a bunch of Gerber daisies. Before Kuri’s mind processed what that could mean, her attention darted lower, to the dress slacks she’d never seen him wear. At the juncture of his thighs, unmistakable proof of how happy he was to see her bowed forward in an impressive display.
“Aw hell. I’m sorry about that.” Frank covered his crotch with the darker of his hands. He smiled at her sheepishly.
Oh no.
Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh…fuck no. She snatched off her glasses to press the heel of her hand into her face. “Frank. Tell me it’s not what I think.”
He dropped the flowers. “I didn’t… Aw, crap. I’m sorry.” Frank stepped toward her—as if she’d curl into his arms for comfort.
“Go away.” Kuri gave him a hard shove.
Frank stumbled, tripping over the flowers littering the doorstep. “C’mon—”
She slammed the door so hard the flimsy wall shook. Then Kuri pressed her forehead against the painted wood. She knew he wasn’t going to go away. Frank was the type of guy to stand there stoically until she had no choice but to leave the house.
“I’m gonna wait,” Frank called through the door. “I’m sorry you don’t remember, but nothing bad happened.”
Kuri’s temper spiked. She was covered in bruises and knew most of them hadn’t been there the day before. Humiliation welled up in her chest, forced tears to her eyes. “Bullshit.” She yanked open the door and scowled right in his big, stupid face.
Chapter Four
Kuri looked as if she wanted to tear his parts off and graft them to someone else. She wore a baggy sweat suit and flip-flops. Even though he felt guilty as hell over having sex with her, and worse still that she was angry, Frank smiled that she’d at least changed her shoes.
She poked him in the arm. “I don’t know all the details of what happened last night, but it is never going to happen again.”
Frank rubbed his face—all weirdly smooth from the first real shave he’d done in years. He wasn’t letting her off so easy. “We need to talk about it.”
Her eyes got wide and she frantically shook her head. “No, we don’t. If you want me to keep working for the ZU, you’ll never mention it again.” Her face flushed—a beautiful pink color high on her cheeks.
He wanted to kiss that heated flesh. Frank eased nearer. Her smell wrapped around him, filling his senses, making him nuts. Frank tried to keep the growl out of his voice. “I’m not gonna make you get a full reset. But I think you and I need to schedule some more reprogramming.”
She looked up at him, her eyes narrowed. They stood so close Kuri’s sweatshirt brushed Frank’s chest. “I can’t believe you’d make me get a reset.” She frowned. “To make me forget everything altogether, just so you can stop this one glitch ?”
Frank stroked her arm. “I said I wasn’t gonna make you get a reset.”
“That means you thought about it. How exactly do you think you would force me anyway?” She put her hand on her hip and stuck out her chin.
He retreated a step. “Well, you’ve got to admit, running around picking up strange men every night is not exactly normal.” He caught the hurt in her expression too late.
“As if you would know normal .” She rotated toward the door, her shoulder scraping across his ribs. “Let me go.”
He felt the heat of her body through the layers of her clothes, and remembered her soft curves. Frank pressed a hand to the wall, trapping her outside the door, but Kuri didn’t turn around. Her narrow shoulders tensed.
“No.” Frank hovered between wanting to hold her in his arms and wanting to take her over his knee. He bent to murmur in her