“Zach’s, but don’t change the subject. Did you really bring those women home to piss me off?”
“Yes. Definitely.”
“You are such a jackass,” she says, but there’s humor in her tone. “I totally should have brought a guy home.” Her gaze wanders, as if she’s reconsidering.
I squeeze her waist. “No, you shouldn’t have. That would not have gone over well.”
“Why? What would you have done?”
“Thrown him out,” I say without hesitation. I lean down and kiss her neck right below her jaw. “I’m not perfect. I’ve not always done the right thing, but I love you, Mira. You’ve always had a chunk of my heart nestled in your feisty little hand. Maybe all we needed was that last shove—this forced living situation—for what we have to come together, because over these last few weeks, you’ve stolen the rest of my heart. It’s why you make me crazy. Can you tone down the feist?”
“No,” she says automatically, though she blinks several times, as though distracted by my words.
I told her I loved her and I meant it. It’s time she knew.
She kisses my forehead, then my nose. “I’m sorry about Anna. It makes sense why you felt you didn’t deserve my love if you believed you threw away hers.”
Her gaze hardens and she wiggles out of my lap. “But no matter what words you bribe me with, you are not off the hook.”
I sigh in frustration. I tell the girl I love her, and she walks away. It would be terrible, if I didn’t think she felt the same.
“We are not okay, Tyler Morgan. I may have had trust issues and insecurities when we were younger. I was stupid and didn’t tell you how I felt?—”
She’s going somewhere with this tirade, but I can’t help but interrupt. “How do you feel?”
“—but I’m just now dealing with the most destructive relationship of my life. Being around my mom has messed with my head. I need to know that you’re not going to run out, and that we’re in the same place emotionally. That we’re compatible.”
I look beneath my lashes, my gaze raking her body suggestively.
She shakes her head. “In that way we are too compatible.”
“No such thing as too compatible in that way.”
She looks to the ceiling in exasperation. “You’ve changed, Tyler. I’m not saying it’s bad. I understand you went through a difficult time in Colorado. Tragedies like that can strengthen a person as much as they can shatter. But I need to know we are compatible enough for a mature relationship. That we can tackle our pasts together. No more running out.” She holds her head high. “I’m tired of games. I want something real.”
“I do too.”
For a moment, we simply stare at each other.
Mira breaks our stare-down when she walks to her bedroom door. She pauses inside the threshold. “You’ll need to prove it,” she says softly, and closes the door behind her.
Damn, she’s going to make me work for it.
What she doesn’t know is that I’ve waited eight years for her, if you count the time when I pined and never did anything.
Mira is the only woman I’ve ever loved. So deeply, in fact, that my heart was misshapen until I returned to her, molding itself back into the semblance of a human form. I wasn’t good for anyone else, but I’m good for this girl.
And if she needs me to prove it, I will.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Mira
After work the next day, Tyler spent the evening cleaning. Cleaning. He sorted his books and tucked them into a corner, spines out. He cleared the dining table of his technical journals and scribbled-on papers. And he did the dishes. The freaking dishes. I’m seriously considering whether an alien life-form has taken over his body. It could happen. Based on his recent behavior, I rule nothing out.
Tyler told me he loved me last night. Just like that, he laid it all out there. For a moment, I thought I was in some sort of dream state. There’s never been any other guy for me but Tyler. To have him tell me he loved me filled me with so much hope, I nearly lost it and told him everything I felt inside. I held on by a thread and remembered what happened the last time I gave Tyler Morgan everything. We have a tendency to run from each other when faced with emotions. And Tyler’s still getting over his guilt about his fiancée, for which I can’t blame him. But these things combined leave me a little gun-shy.
I don’t want to rush into anything. I’m thinking before I act from now on. No more racing to the loan shark in need of funds, no more running into Tyler’s arms just because he opens them, even if I think that is where I belong. I want us to ease into this, get to know each other. Be sure.
