“You know?”
“Whoops, did I just say that?”
I cock my head. “You were spying on me in the shower?”
“Guilty.”
“I knew you liked to watch.”
“Maybe, but then we finally got together, and you sell us out to Smoke. I left, figuring you weren’t interested, then you end up coming back to save me. Then, after all that, you turn me away again with the excuse that you’re not good enough for me.”
“Well, I’m not.”
“We haven’t had what most would call a traditional relationship, but if you didn’t mean the things you said to Smoke or to me, why did you say them?”
I stare at the ceiling for a few minutes. “‘Cause I was . . . afraid.”
“Afraid? You’re six-three, two hundred and twenty pounds. What the hell could you be afraid of?”
“You.”
“Me?”
“You turning me out. Telling me to go to hell or, worse, laughing in my face.”
“And what about the things you said to Smoke?”
“Ahhh, shit, I figured he’d laugh his ass off too. Then he’d say what the fuck was I thinking that a girl like you would be interested in me. I didn’t feel like listening to him, so I blew him off with trash talk.”
“You’re very complicated for an outlaw.”
“Look, I don’t know where this is headed, but I wanna be with you.”
“I want to be with you too, but . . . I can’t take any chances when it comes to trust. My bullshit meter has been tested, and one more fail might just wreck me.”
“All I can tell you is . . .” He moves closer and wraps his arms around my waist. “I know I’ve never felt this way about another woman.”
“Not even the first two wives?”
“Especially not the first two wives, or the one who claimed I was the baby daddy.”
“That’s weird and sweet at the same time.” I motion around the room. “Kinda funny we’re back here where it all started.”
A frown clouds his face. “This isn’t gonna work.”
CHAPTER 26
MARTINA
My heart ricochets against my ribs. “What?”
“You and me in this room again.”
“What do you mean? You just said?—”
“I just said I wanna be with you, but not here in some sleazy room where a hundred other guys have been. I want you special, sprawled out for me in my bed.”
I huff out a long-held breath. “I thought . . . never mind.”
