George drops his face into his hands with a groan. “Just let me help you, Beth.”
“No.”
“I’m your boyfriend.” There’s a twinge of doubt in his voice that softens my bristling exterior. We haven’t expressly said what we are to each other yet, but after Tasha and Annabel’s reception, I agree that we’ve reached at least that point together.
“You are.”
A touch of tension leaves his shoulders, as if he braced for me to deny his claim. “So you should accept my help.”
“That’s not how it works.”
“Yes, it is!” He drops his hands, eyes pleading with me. “It’s okay to accept help from your boyfriend. And it’s also okay to accept help from your brother.”
“I do!” Too much. He gives me so much and doesn’t know I lied to get more. But he will know. A few weeks, and the truth will be out.
“Fine. You do,” he concedes. “Then let me help with this like a good boyfriend. People in couples support each other. What’s mine is yours.”
“That’s a husband-and-wife thing.”
“Then marry me.”
I gape at George.
He doesn’t back down. Doesn’t take it back. He just holds my gaze with his, determination hardening the silver in his irises.
“You did not just propose to me to win an argument,” I hiss.
He grimaces. “I love—”
“Oh god! Stop, George. Just stop.” I storm toward the door, grabbing my bag as I go. “I don’t want to hear that right now.”
Disturbed by my agitated footsteps, Jet launches from beneath the couch and scrabbles across the floor to find a new hiding spot in her castle of cardboard boxes.
George ignores his wild cat roommate to follow me, not crowding me but still keeping close. “Why can’t I say it if it’s true?”
I whirl on him. “Because it doesn’t feel true when you’re just trying to get your way!”
He drags frustrated hands over his skull. “Please don’t leave. Can’t we just…go to war?”
Wouldn’t that be lovely? Take a few shots and let a deck of cards decide who’s right?
But that’s not how life works. Not how relationships work. At least I don’t think they do. Honestly, I don’t have any experience, which is why I want to get out of this condo before I say something to mess this up.
“No. No war. I just need space.”
I thought coming here would give me that, but George is just another person I care about who I can’t tell the full truth to.
The blood drains from his face. “Are you breaking up with me?”
Jet lets out an eerie yowl as if sensing her human’s distress.
I groan in frustration because damn it, I think I love this man, and I don’t want to hurt him. But I don’t know how to make a choice that won’t.
Still, either way, I’m not letting him go.
“Space from this argument. Not you.” I fist a hand in his shirt and drag him down to my level. He comes easily. Accepts my kiss eagerly.
He tries to coax me to follow him back into his home with the temptation of his lips and his love.
