Page 53 of Poet & Protector

He folded his arms over his chest. “What’s your problem?”

“You.” I stabbed my finger at him. “You’re my problem. I have to drag every word out of you most of the time, and when you do decide to talk it’s to insult me or parade your intellect around like you expect me to applaud.”

“Seriously?” He sighed.

“Yes, seriously,” I said. “I can’t take it anymore. I’m done.”

Nev set the now wrinkled notebook page aside and stood up. “Mason, listen to me⁠—”

I was absolutely not going to listen to whatever lecture he was about to give me. The nerve of this guy.

“No.” I stalked up to him so we stood face to face.

Nev and I were almost exactly the same height, but I still straightened because there was no way in hell I would risk letting him look down at me.

“You are not going to be all glowery and superior in your ‘I’m such a rock star’ black shirt and black jeans and black boots,” I told him. “You write songs and sing and play guitar, so what? I couldn’t care less.”

A puzzled expression appeared on his face. “I don’t⁠—”

“And this stupid hat.” I cut him off and snatched the tweed cap off his head, making him snarl at me. “I hate this hat. It’s dumb and the way it looks so hot on you makes no sense whatsoever.”

Nev froze, his hand outstretched to retrieve his cap from my fingers. “Wait, what?”

Fuck. Did I say that out loud?

Heat flooded my cheeks. “I said your hat is stupid.”

“Uh huh.” He was watching me far too closely. “I heard that part. Pretty sure I also heard something else.”

I silently cursed at myself.

“You didn’t,” I growled, throwing his cap at him.

He caught it and twirled it around on his fingertips before setting it atop his head. The hat continued to be obnoxiously attractive on him.

If I didn’t get the hell away from him I was going to grab it again and rip it to shreds.

I spun around. “I’m out of here. Good luck with the poem.”

“Stop.” Nev grabbed my wrist and tugged me toward him. “You’re not leaving.”

“Oh, I’m leaving.” I jerked my arm hard, but he held me with an iron grip. I tried to ignore the way his strength made my pulse skip under the press of his fingers. “Let go.”

“Not until we deal with this problem.”

“I am dealing with the problem.” I turned to face him and bared my fangs, “I just told you I’ll get Ms. Castillo to assign us new partners. There. Solved.”

“That’s not the problem,” he replied. “You hate my hat.”

“I’ll get over it,” I said, annoyed that he was still holding onto me and even more annoyed that I didn’t want him to let go.

“You hate my hat.” Nev took a step closer. The fingers braceleting my wrist tightened even more. “And I hate your vests.”

I stared at him. He had to be making fun of me, but there was a gleam in his eye that didn’t look like mockery.

“You hate my vests.”

“I hate your vests.” His other hand came up to trace the inner hem on the right side of my vest. “Your stupid, stupid vests.”