He shakes his head, blinking hard.
Then he laughs, pushing out a breath,
trying to snap himself out of a spell.
“That’s it—sono fottuto.
“You broke my whole damn brain.”
I bite into my lip as he tries to recover.
“Okay, I swear I’m not usually this off my game.” He laughs again, rubs the back of his neck. “You got this whole…‘ruin me on sight’thing goin’, and yeah, I wasn’t ready.”
First, I was the unsteady, unraveling one.
Now he’s the one stumbling, and I’m… not.
I don’t know when I stopped breaking,
only that I did.
Just in time to catch him.
A helpless smile finds me.
“You’re doing fine, Jersey.”
He fights another grin, losing fast,
and looks away to hide it.
And still fails,
his eyes coming right back to me anyway.
“Damn. Read me that quick, huh?”
“Yeah. You got that whole…‘soft-spoken Jersey boy who ruins all the girls’thing goin’.”
I mean it as a tease, but the words are still warm in my mouth
when he shuts them down. “Nah—I’m more of afind-one-and-keep-ruinin'-hertype.”
One of my brows lifts, the other’s skeptical.
“Yeah? Is that right?”
“Yeah. One girl, infinite ways to fuck her up right. That's the dream.”
And—
oh, fuck,he’s smiling.
Get it together.
Stay smug. Stay blank.
Whatever you do,
