Exasperation exploded out of Lachlan. “Mac, for fuck’s sake, give me one less thing to worry about, please.”

Mac glowered. Silence filled the hospital room.

And then, “Fine. I’ll stay at the castle,” Mac grumbled under his breath. “Jesus Christ.”

“I’m going to find the nurse and see when we can get out of here.” Robyn cut him a dark look. “Try not to yell at my still-injured father while I’m gone.”

He rolled his eyes, throwing his hands in the air as he turned away from the irritating father and daughter.

Not long later, Mac bristled as the nurse forced him into a wheelchair that barely fit his large physique.

“Is it necessary?” Lachlan asked the nurse, knowing he’d feel just as mortified being wheeled out of the hospital like an invalid.

“It’s policy.” The nurse remained unmoved.

He flashed her the smile that had gotten him laid many a time. “Can you not let it go, just this once?”

The nurse smirked. “Not even for you.”

“Let’s just go.” Robyn took hold of the wheelchair handles.

“I’ll do it.” Lachlan tried to brush her aside.

“I’m already here. Hey, get off. My God, you are unbelievably controlling.” She pushed Mac toward the exit.

Lachlan wanted to throttle her. “It’s not about being in control. I thought your father might appreciate me wheeling him instead of his bloody daughter.”

“Mac is fine.”

“And I’m controlling? I’ve never met a more aggravating ballbuster in my life.”

“Ugh, men like you always call women like me ballbusters. Just because I don’t melt in a puddle at your feet every time you flash that stupid-ass grin doesn’t mean I’m a control freak or a ballbuster.”

“Men like me?”

“Afraid of strong women.”

“I’m not afraid of strong women, Ms. Penhaligon. In fact, I rather enjoy fucking them. A strong woman isn’t afraid to let a man be a man.”

Her cheeks flushed. “Men. You always make it about sex.”

“I meant in life. You mentioned something a while ago about me unshriveling my balls. Perhaps if you didn’t make men feel small, and treat them like they were unintelligent and useless, you wouldn’t make their balls want to climb inside themselves. Maybe then you wouldn’t be almost thirty and still single.”

It was a low blow. And a sexist one at that.

He knew it.

But she frustrated him in a way he couldn’t remember any woman ever doing.

“Lachlan.” Mac’s voice cut through the air like a whip.

Robyn had rolled him to a stop at Lachlan’s Range Rover.

Fuck.

He’d forgotten his friend.

Mac scowled up at him in warning.

Robyn refused to make eye contact with Lachlan.

Double fuck.

So much for avoiding her these last few days so he wouldn’t say something shitty that might get back to Mac.

He’d said it right in front of him.

A terrible silence fell among them as Mac eased out of the chair and into the passenger seat of Lachlan’s SUV, his hand pressed to his stomach as if to hold himself together.

“I’ll see you at the estate,” Robyn said softly to her father.

Mac gave her a tender smile. “Okay, wee birdie. See you soon.”

Something devastating flashed in her eyes at Mac’s pet name. She covered it quickly with a tight smile, and Lachlan closed the passenger door.

He followed Robyn around the hood of the car as she wheeled the chair toward the hospital to return it. An apology caught in the back of his throat as he stared at her back.

Then she halted, leaving the chair to stomp back to him.

Anticipation thrummed through him at the stubborn tilt of her chin.

“Not that I have to explain myself, but I’m single because I want to be single.” She drew her eyes down his body and back up again in disgust. “It’s just downright low of you to turn whatever bullshit this is between us into what you just did. I don’t need you to think a certain way about me. In fact, you’ve made it pretty clear how little you think of me. I don’t care.” She shook her head, her fierceness electrifying the air between them. “I am epic, and if a guy plays his cards right, I know how to make him feel like a goddamn king …”

She straightened, casting him one last disdainful look. “So don’t you think for one second your opinion has any effect on my self-esteem.”

Lachlan was stunned silent.

Not just because of her words.

But because of how they made him feel in places he had no right feeling with regard to Robyn Penhaligon.

As he watched her stride away pushing the wheelchair, tight ass swaying with her swagger, he cursed under his breath.

It took him a minute to gather himself before he could turn back to the Range Rover and get in. Avoiding Mac’s eyes, he started the engine and swung the car out of the parking space.

More awkward silence hung between them.

“You do let her get to you, don’t you,” Mac broke in, sounding half amused, half unimpressed by Lachlan’s lack of self-control.