Stolen Petals by Katherine McIntyre

height, but more than that, his presence was suffocating. Those hazel eyes stared back at her without the teasing or playfulness.
    Viola slammed the door, but his foot darted in the way before it shut.
    "Leave," her voice frosted over.
    "I'd like to talk," he started, but then sighed. "Here." He tossed something through the air. A small card dropped onto the floor. "Check that. I'll be waiting out here."
    Seeing him again, the anger and shame flushed through her with an exquisite pain. For a moment, Viola didn't move and stood there trembling. Gathering her composure, she crouched to pick up the plastic card. Looked like a holder for credits. Driven by curiosity, she swiped it into the slot on her keypad. A balance came up on the holo-screen. The numbers stared back at her as she gaped, not quite computing.
    Half. It was exactly half of the bounty. She popped the bubble of hope rising in her chest. Her share didn't mean anything, but he'd piqued her curiosity enough to deserve an explanation.
    Slowly, she opened the door, very aware she let a lion in to prowl. "What's this?" she asked, exerting every ounce of control to keep her voice level.
    "Your share, as promised." He faced her, all the joking and laughter drained from his face.
    Viola sucked in a deep breath. The bitter part of her wanted to fling it in his face, but letting him know she'd been hurt gave him control. "Thank you for bringing it by. Pleasure doing business with you." She couldn't quite force a smile. His gaze darkened.
    She grabbed the knob to close the door, but he strolled right on in.
    "You're not shutting me out," he snapped, pacing around her house like a wild animal. Wherever the teasing, mischievous man she'd met had gone, he wasn't here now.
    "Our business is done. Would you please leave?" Viola clung to her politeness, letting her heart freeze over.
    "I've sent at least ten letters explaining myself and trying to give you your share. No response."
    Viola sucked in a sharp breath. "Perhaps you'd employ better business practices if you didn't double cross your partners." His anger and her share of the bounty didn’t add up.
    "Is that what you think I did?" His voice was low, unreadable. "I may not have the best reputation, but do you think so little of me?"
    His words stung deeper than anticipated, from the earnest way his eyes pierced her to the raw hurt in his voice. Her composure cracked.
    "What do you expect?" she shot back. "You've stolen my marks before and then want to work together? You spend half the time trying to bed me and then when I believed ," her voice cracked, "that you showed up to help me, you knock me out. I wake up to hear you claimed the bounty, leaving me the fool."
    Edward stood there, struck silent as Viola battled with the burn of tears forming in her eyes. Not for him and not over him, she wouldn't. The space between them tensed like a war zone as if one wrong move would ignite into violence. A tear slipped past and she let out a hiss of a curse.
    He'd seen it. Edward closed the gap between them and threw his arms around her. He was so, so solid and emanated a fierce heat which made her want to believe the best of him. His embrace warmed her in ways that sent her heart and head to war.
    "You misunderstood." He pulled her in tight, murmuring into her hair. "A ball like the Brownetrees', your reputation and livelihood's at risk, whereas I had nothing to lose. If it slipped that Viola Embrees was a bounty hunter, you'd lose everything. I thought I'd take the heat for the both of us."
    The weight of the truth hung heavy on her shoulders. "Then perhaps my judgment was hasty."
    "We're both too independent, too used to doing things on our own." He wiped the escaped tear with his thumb and lifted her face. "So let me start with some honest communication. Viola Embrees, I approached you for duplicitous reasons. Not because I needed help, but because you had caught my interest." The wickedness returned to his eyes, the spark of