Zara's POV
I bit my lip without thinking. The word brat landed between us like something hot and heavy. I could feel my face flushing again, and I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. The skirt moved with the movement, brushing against my sore skin.
He didn’t let me stay quiet. “It wasn’t a rhetorical question.”
I stuttered a little as I answered, the words coming out before I could make them smoother. “I wouldn’t act like a brat if you stopped treating me like a kid.”
He moved then, stepping around behind me so I couldn’t see his face anymore. I could feel him there, close but not touching, his presence filling the space around me. His voice came from just over my shoulder, low and rough.
“What do you want me to treat you as?”
Before I could answer, he spoke again, the wor
