She let herself in, but he didn’t stir himself to greet her. She’d probably just come to return his stuff to him.
“Evan?”
He lay on the couch covered in green. He probably looked like one long, unshaved, slovenly cucumber. And he didn’t care.
Or he told himself not to care, wishing his heart didn’t pound so hard.
“Oh, are you sick?”
Fuck. She looked good, and he was so hungry to just see her. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, her face thin but so darn pretty. She looked clean, scrubbed, and innocent. And the sweats she wore only accented her natural beauty.
He closed his eyes. “Yeah, I’m sick.”Of loving you.“You should go.”
Instead, she sat next to him on the couch, scooting him over when he refused to move. Then she put a hand on his forehead.
“You’re not warm.”
“I’m not a lot of things” slipped out before he could help it.
“Oh, Evan.” She just had to hug him, didn’t she? He’d been slowly trying to get over her massive rejection, raging at Hallmark, enjoying a streaming bunch of bad guys getting death and dismemberment, empathizing with a hero who’d lost his wife and kids. And then she had to show up and hug him.
“Go away.” He refused to look at her again, miserable. He waited for her to leave.
“I’m so sorry you saw me freaked out. Evan, my only excuse is I was under a lot of stress, and I was sick.”
He opened his eyes. “You were sick?”
Come to think of it, she really was much thinner than she’d been. And paler.
“I caught Daniel’s crud. He was sick too. It’s been going around the high school.” She leaned down and kissed him on the mouth, and he was too stunned to stop her. She tasted minty. Very minty.
“Did you eat a peppermint plant or what?” His mouth was burning. He tried to sit up, feeling ridiculous as she loomed over him. But she lay on top of him, keeping him in place.
“No. You’re going to let me finish.”
He sighed. “Fine.”
“I wish you hadn’t caught me when I was so low. But I’m glad you did. You claim you love me. But I said some awful things. I meant some, and I didn’t mean some. Do you still love me?”
“Damn you. Yes.” He hated that he couldn’t stop himself.
Except her joyful smile took his breath away. “Oh, Evan. Say it.”
“No.”
She tried to tickle him, even found a few of his sensitive spots, but he grabbed her hands to hold her still. “Say it, please?” she asked.
“No.” It hurt too much.
“Will it help if I say it first?”
“No. Don’t lie to me.”
She kissed him, and when he tried to move away from her, she wouldn’t let him.
His body, predictably, didn’t care that he was hurting. It only cared that the woman who smelled so damn good, the woman who made him insane with lust, had returned. And she was moving against him in that way she had, stirring him past sense.
She leaned up, and he released her hands. She cupped his face and kissed him again.
