Uh, rude. “Excuse me?”
“You can’t be that blind,” he repeated with a scowl that might have made me want to hide if he hadn’t just played with me for half an hour.
“Hey, fuck you, I’m not dense,” I spat.
“Yeah, you are,” he argued, gently but somehow looking genuinely insulted.
What did he have to be upset over?
Those purple irises blazed, telling me just how aggravated or annoyed he was, and then confirming it with the way his voice went so deep it sounded like it came from the base of his throat. “Gracie, do you think there’s a future for you without me in it?”
Why would that get his panties in a twist?
“Do you really think there’s a future formewithout you in it?” he asked that time, enunciating every word, his gaze blazing into mine.
I’d thought for sure it would have been my heart that reacted to that comment, but it was my gut. “I don’t understand why you’re mad.”
His jaw ticced to the side, and I could see the battle on his face. In those eyes. Alex’s chest rose and fell before he said, very, very calmly, more controlled and gentle than I’d ever heard from him before, “It hurts my feelings that I’m right here, that you’re right there, and you still think that you’re ever going to be alone again.”
I blinked.
He did too.
I blinked again, and his head tipped to the side, those perfect cheekbones tight.
Had he just admitted that I’d hurt his feelings? Me? He might as well have… he might as well have told me his deepest, darkest secret.
I was stunned.
“Do I need to explain this in a different way?” Alex asked so carefully.
I nodded.
His gaze flicked upward, and he set his hands on those charcoal-colored hips, looking like The Defender and sounding like I’d thought The Defender would sound, but acting like… like fuckingAlexas he muttered to himself, “Okay.”
What the hell was happening?
He pinched the bridge of his nose, dragging his fingers down the tip. Then he dropped his hand and looked at me. “Gracie?” he asked slowly.
“Yes?”
He was straddling that line between sounding grouchy and cool. “Guess what?”
I hesitated just a little, not sure where this was going but too curious to not wonder. “What?”
“Listen to me clearly.”
“I’m listening clearly.”
His mouth twitched first. Both his hands formed fists, but his voice was absolutely steady and so rich. He leaned in so his face was the only thing I could see as he said, “I always like you the most.”
OH BOY.
My whole soul went weak.
“What?” How was it possible that my eyes could start watering so fast?
He took a step closer and wrapped an arm around my lower back like it was the most natural thing in the world—it felt like it was—and he said evenly, in his Super voice, “Ialwayslike you the most.”
