“I’m sorry.”I feel like an asshole and rightfully so.He’s pouring his heart out to me, asking for me to be his girl, and I’m questioning him and his feelings.
“Everything is different with you.I’m not going to lie.I wasn’t always the best when it came to women.Very rarely did I ever see someone twice.”
“See” is his code for “sleep with.”Men like Vinnie don’t see people.They sleep with everybody, sowing those ridiculous oats and living the life of a playboy like it’s their job to spread pleasure to as many females as humanly possible in a short amount of time.
“Why me?Why now?”I ask.I have verbal diarrhea and just can’t understand why he’s ready to become Steady Eddie at this point in time.He has a huge football career in front of him and could probably get any woman on the planet in his bed if he wanted.
“That is exactly why.”
I narrow my eyes.“Come again?”
“Because you question everything.You’re not like most women I know.They would’ve said yes without asking why or even giving it another thought.You’re complicated, difficult, and argumentative.You don’t care who I am or what fame I might have.I think you like me for me, and the things I can do with my cock and tongue are just a bonus.”
I give him a smile.“I do like you and not because of your cock.”
He’s an expert lover.I can’t deny that.It’s like he’s spent a lifetime studying the best ways to please me and understands my body like no man ever has before.There was no coaching him on where to touch me to give me an orgasm.He just knew.
“Then say you’ll be my girl.Just you and me.No one else.”
“If you break my heart—” I start to say, but he releases one of my hands and places his fingers against my lips.
“Don’t say it.I won’t break your heart, but don’t break mine either.”
“How would I do that?”
He slides his hand around to my neck as he holds me tightly, sweeping his thumb along my chin.“Listen, I didn’t date anyone steady because I wanted to be a player.I had my heart broken once in high school, and after watching my parents have a complicated relationship most of my life, I promised myself I wouldn’t go down the same path.I wanted to wait until I found someone I knew I could love.Someone who challenged me and didn’t just bend over backward to give me whatever I wanted.You’re not easy in any sense of the word.”
I laugh.“I guess I’m not.”
“Trust me, you’re not.”He smiles as he moves his thumb closer to my mouth, grazing my bottom lip.“That’s what I like most about you.You’re not falling at my feet.I had to work my ass off just to spend time with you.You’re special, Bianca.I want you to know how special you really are.You turned my head with that attitude, and my feelings for you are already running deep.It would gut me if I had to see you with another man.Just say you’ll be my girl already.You know you want to say yes.Stop being so stubborn.”
This is the time when I’d usually dig in my heels, trying to prove I’m not stubborn, while being the stubbornest of all.But I don’t want to be that way with Vinnie.I like the thought of him being mine just as much as me being his.I can’t lie or deny that fact.
“I’m just scared, Vinnie.If you broke my heart, I’m not sure I could write another book for a very long time.My whole world would implode.”
“What happens off the field affects what happens on the field.When my life is out of sorts, it shows in my performance.I’m putting myself on the line asking you this just as much as you’d be putting yourself on the line if you say yes.Relationships are a two-way street, baby.”
The last few weeks have been wonderful, minus Susan and her sourpuss attitude about my new book.Vinnie’s given me something to look forward to each day, and if suddenly it were all to stop and he dropped out of my life, I would probably end up depressed and drowning my sorrows in the bottom of a half-gallon tub of ice cream.
“I want to be your girl,” I whisper.
He moves closer, turning his ear toward me, but I can see his smile.“Say that again.”
“I want to be your girl, Vinnie.”
The words aren’t even completely out of my mouth before his lips are on mine.When he kisses me, the world melts away.Everything that’s happened before no longer matters.
Vinnie does that to me.
“Thank you,” he murmurs against my lips before pulling away.
“For what?”My voice is airy, almost breathless after the short but hot kiss he just laid on me.
“For saying yes.”He licks his lips, and my eyes follow.“For being mine.”
I know he’s not perfect, but this moment, sitting in his car and with the way he’s looking at me, is absolute perfection.
“Can we just stay here?”I ask, not wanting to go back to the real world.
