“Now, that wasn’t very nice,” the bastard that she was going to kill with her bare hands said as he opened the basement door and leaned against the doorframe.

Eyes narrowing, she quickly looked him over, hoping to find her purse, but there was nothing in his hands. That was fine with her, she thought as she pushed past him, half-expecting him to stop her. When he simply stepped aside and let her walk past him, she decided that she could just as easily ransack his room as she could kick his ass.

“You’ll never find it,” he said, chuckling as he followed her downstairs.

“Uh huh,” she said, pausing at the foot of the stairs as she surveyed the large finished basement.

Unlike the rest of the house that looked like it was stuck back in the 1950s, this room looked modern. It looked more comfortable and it definitely was more guy friendly. The loveseat by the back wall was large and looked comfortable, as did the bed, which was neatly made. That shocked her, but not as much as the fact that the rest of the room was clean and tidy. Given how much Christofer seemed to hate doing household chores, she’d assumed that his room would have resembled something out of a frat house.

Instead his room was clean and everything seemed to have a place. There were no posters of scantily clad women on the walls, empty beer cans littering the floor or the smell of food rotting away somewhere in the corner. Then again, there wasn’t much to leave on the floor, she realized as she looked around the room and noted that besides the laptop computer, some art supplies and an insane amount of books lined up against the walls, there wasn’t anything personal in the room.

The only furniture in the room was the bed, a small dresser, a large refrigerator in the corner and a few bookshelves that were crammed full of books. She’d seen hotel rooms that looked homier than this room. As far as she knew, he’d been living here all of his life, but it didn’t show. It looked more like he was just passing through. It made her heart break a little more for him.

He was living in a town where he was obviously not wanted, had no friends, hid out in the barn most of the time working, and spent whatever free time that he had making sure that his sister was taken care of. Well, his version of taking care of her, she amended, pursing up her lips in thought as she looked the room over again.

“How exactly do you plan on finding it?” he asked, walking past her as he pulled off his shirt, revealing the incredible torso that she may have enjoyed snuggling up against last night.

“By tearing your room apart piece by piece until I find my purse. Then I’m going to beat you with it, say goodbye to Marta, kick your ass again and then leave,” she said, somehow managing to look away when all she wanted to do was to walk up to him, wrap her arms around him, and soak in the comfort that only he could give her one last time before she left for good.

“That sounds like fun,” he said around a yawn as he flopped down across the bed on his stomach. “Just try not to wake me up, okay, mein Schatz?” he said, sounding amused when he should be frightened.

And what the hell did mein Schatz mean anyway? She considered asking him, but she didn’t want to take a chance giving him something else to torment her with. Sending one last scowl in his direction, she made her way to what she assumed was his bathroom. After a quick check, she decided that her purse wasn’t in there so she moved on to his closet with no luck.

Fifteen minutes later she was ready to kill the bastard. She’d searched everywhere with absolutely no luck. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, she thought as her gaze narrowed on the refrigerator in the corner, the refrigerator that was currently locked and no doubt held her purse.

“Open the fridge,” she demanded as she walked over to the bed.

“No,” he said, shifting onto his back with a sigh as he settled in once again for a nap.

“Just give me my purse so that I can leave,” she bit through clenched teeth, praying that he cut the shit and just let her go, because she seriously didn’t know how much longer it would be until she snapped and did something that would require her to apologize to Marta and probably face a little jail time.

“Let me think about it for a minute,” he said, folding his arms behind his head, not even bothering to open his eyes as he added, “No,” with a little smirk that had her eyes narrowing to slits and her hands twitching with the need to grab a pillow and smother the bastard.

“Christofer,” she said, pausing to close her eyes and take a deep breath before she continued, “I’m seconds away from killing you with my bare hands. Just give me my purse so that I can be on my way and you can continue breathing.”

“No,” he simply said, leaving her with no choice but to kill him.

Furious, she stormed over to the bed, grabbed a pillow and climbed onto the bed. She straddled his thighs just as she shoved the pillow down on his face. She held it over his face for a good thirty seconds or so before she asked, “Are you going to give me my purse?”

“No,” came the muffled reply and God help the bastard, but it sounded like he was laughing.

“Last chance,” she warned, giving the pillow a slight shake to show him that she meant business.

With a sigh, Christofer pulled his arms out from behind his head and grabbed the pillow. Before she could stop him, he flipped the pillow back and raised his head as he settled back more comfortably against it. When she went to grab the pillow away from him and finish the job, he grabbed her hands and carefully entwined their fingers.

“Let go,” she demanded as she tried to pull her hands free, admittedly not trying very hard and hating herself for it.

She liked where she was a little too much, which was just a reminder that she really needed to leave before she did something stupid like let herself fall for the jerk. As it was, she was already too close to liking him. It probably wouldn’t take much to push her over the edge and make her come up with a lame excuse to stay.

“No,” he said, gently caressing his thumb over the back of her hands.

“I need to go, Christofer,” she said, feeling herself soften as she looked down into his beautiful baby blue eyes.

“No, you really don’t,” he said with a simple shake of his head as he continued to caress his thumbs across the back of her hands.

“Yes, I really do,” she snapped in aggravation as she sat back on his thighs and glanced around the room again.

“Then leave,” he said with a careless shrug that she really didn’t care for, not one bit.

“I can’t,” she ground out even as she wondered if he’d snuck out of the house and hid the purse somewhere else.

“You could if you really wanted to,” he explained before adding, “Clearly you don’t want to leave,” just to piss her off.

“Really?” she asked, looking back down at him and cocking a brow. “Why don’t we put your little theory to the test then?”

“And how do you propose that we do that?”

“Give me back my purse,” she suggested in a challenging tone.

“And what would that prove exactly?” he asked as his gaze slowly left her face to do a slow perusal of her body and she swore that she could actually feel it moving down her body.

“Well, after I kick your ass and take off, I think it will prove that I wanted to leave,” she explained, noting the way her voice started to tremble at the end even as she prayed that he’d missed it.