Forcing her gaze away from Ian, because the man was the word “uncontrollable” in human form, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath to center herself. Okay, this drive home was not going to be fun, but at least she’d have the back seat to herself while Ian and Alex did their awkward no-talking thing. Or they would fight the whole drive back. Even worse, it could be hours of passive-aggressive snipping back and forth at each other until they got back to Harbor City.

Fuck me. Forget pretending to be asleep—I’m going to pretend to be dead.

Wouldn’t that be nice if she could. Instead, she had to be a grown-up about things.

“Hey, Ian. Alex is—” The word “here” devolved into a muffled “oof” as she turned and managed to smack her face into the wall of muscle that was Ian Petrov’s chest. A delicious shiver worked its way through her—the kind that was a taste of out-of-control wildness she couldn’t afford but damn her, she wanted to give in to it anyway.

“Yeah,” he said, taking a step back and breaking contact after he’d moved so silently to right behind her. “I see.”

All right, she did not miss his touch—inadvertent or not—at all. Not a single bit.

Liar.

Annoyed at her own reaction, Shelby crossed her arms and matched him glare for glare. “Try not to make this completely awful. The guy did us a huge favor.”

“Thanks for the lesson in manners.” He kept his attention focused on the SUV outside. “I’ll be sure to let my mom know what a shitty job she did with that.”

She gasped and her cheeks flamed with embarrassment. That’s not what she meant. Why did he always have to take everything as an attack? “There’s no reason to go all total asshole with me.”

“Well, we’re heading back to reality, right?” He leveled a heated look at her. “Everything in the cabin was just the exception that proves the rule.”

What should have been relief hurt too much to call it that. “Ian.”

He shook his head. “Let’s keep it to Petrov. Better yet, let’s just keep it silent.”

“You are a giant prick.”

“You would know.”

He smirked down at her, equal parts infuriating and addictive. Her temper, the one she kept on firm lockdown, flared to light. However, she was saved from committing murder in the lobby of the Buffly County Sheriff’s Office by the massive guy with short, dirty-blond hair getting out on the SUV’s driver’s side and the one and only Lucy Kavanagh getting out from the passenger’s side. She’d never been so glad to see someone so much in her life. Rushing out of the doors, she made an open-armed beeline toward Lucy.