“You’re overloaded with all the nonsense that Angela created?—”
“Not anymore. You saw to that, and Attie is just tying up loose ends.”
“—and Tiff has enough trouble on her plate, not to mention Chrissy being pregnant and Rory getting hitched, for real this time.” I pocket the note, round my desk, and sink down into my chair, mostly so the spray of flowers hides me as I add, “Plus, you’ve got work responsibilities and contract negotiations and?—”
“Excuses, kid.” He picks up the flowers, carries them to the window sill, setting them down with a carefulclink.Then, shield taken away from me, he’s back in front of my desk, eyes locked onto mine.
I try to hold out.
Or come up with something that doesn’t sound pathetic.
Unfortunately, all I manage is, “I didn’t want you to worry.”
He sighs, sits down in the chair across from me. “That’s what Jace said when he came by to talk to me, and I’m not calling you a liar. All those things you and he mentioned are part of the truth, but I know you well enough to get they’re not everything. Same as I think that Jace knows that too.”
My pulse speeds.
Then there’s nothing to it, the words just slip out. “I like him, JM. Like him more than I’ve ever liked another man.” Maybe I even love him—a thought that has my heart stutter-starting again. “But you know my track record better than anyone: I’m shit at picking men. It’s why I resisted giving him the time of day in the first place, even though he made it clear he was interested.”
“Something obviously changed.”
“Mostly that he was too damned stubborn to take no for an answer.”
Jean-Michel’s lips curve.
“Not thatyouknow anything about that,” I mutter, knowing that his first meeting with Tiff wasn’t exactly the stuff of fairytales.
More like kidnapping fantasies with a morally gray hero.
“But I found I didn’t want to say no, and then I found the more time I spent with him, the more I realized he wasn’t like the other men.” I scowl. “Which is even fucking scarier.”
“You wouldn’t have a reason to keep him at a distance.”
I nod. “Nope.”
“So, now what?”
“What do you mean?”
“Now what are you going to do? Keep that hand up so you can fend him off? Or give in and see where things take you?”
“I think I dropped my hand a while ago,” I whisper. “Because even with it up, I didn’t have any hope of keeping him out of my heart.”
Jean-Michel smirks. “Sucks, huh?”
“Sucks so bad it’s the best thing I’ve ever had in my life.”
Now his face goes soft and he reaches forward, takes my hand. “That’s half the battle.”
“Not being a chicken shit?”
He laughs. “Damn straight. Just channel your negotiating Marie and power through the scary parts.”
“The worst thing is that Jace seems to know when I’m scared and I don’t even have to go that far. I can just be me because he’s got his hand out, ready to haul me safely to the other side.”
“Fuck, kid.”
“What?” I whisper.
