Instead he’d been drunk and surly. And she’d been snappish and critical.

Well, he deserved it. Before she had time to think, she’d heaved the washcloth toward the kitchen, where it slapped wetly against the wall then slid down to the sink. She stared at it for a minute, then down at her own hands.

She’d thrown something. And it felt wonderful. Glancing around, she spotted a paperback book and sent it sailing. A plastic cup gave a nice ring when it hit the wall, but she’d have preferred the crash of glass. Snatching up a battered sneaker, she prepared to heave that, as well. A sound in the doorway had her turning, redirecting aim and shooting it straight into Mikhail’s damp, naked chest. His breath woofed out.

“What are you doing?”

“Throwing things.” She snatched up the second shoe and let it fly. He caught that one before it beaned him.

“You leave me, go away without a word, and you come to throw things?”

“That’s right.”

Eyes narrowed, he tested the weight of the shoe he held. It was tempting, very tempting to see if he could land it on the point of that jutting chin. On an oath, he dropped it. However much she deserved it, he just couldn’t hit a woman.

“Where did you go?”

She tossed her hair back. “I went to see Peter.”

He shoved his bruised hands into the pockets of the jeans he’d tugged on. “You leave me to go see another man, then you come back to throw shoes at my head. Tell me why I shouldn’t just toss you out that window and be done with it.”

“It was important that I see him, that I talk to him. And I—”

“You hurt me,” he blurted out. The words burned on his tongue. He hated to admit it. “Do you think I care about getting a punch in the face? You’d already twisted my heart. This I can fight,” he said, touching the back of his hand to his cut lip. “What you do to me inside leaves me helpless. And I hate it.”