“I-” she opened her mouth to let him know that once they got home that he was either going to give her the key to her apartment or she was going to break the door down when he cut her off.
“And when we get home, Zoe, I swear that I’m going to spank your ass for all the bullshit that you put me through tonight,” Trevor said, startling her.
“What the hell did I do? If anyone here has any right to be mad, it’s me,” she snapped.
“No, sweetheart, I believe that would be me,” Trevor said, moving until he was close enough to reach behind her and gently yank the keys away from her without hurting her.
Knowing that it was useless to argue anymore, especially since he did seem more in control now, except for that little muscle ticking just above his jaw, she pulled her seatbelt on.
“Why exactly do you believe that you’re entitled to be pissed at me?” Zoe asked, twisting in her seat so that she could glare at him, silently daring him to say something that would get his shin kicked, hard.
Had he been ignored all night? Had he had a two-hundred-and-fifty-pound man almost sit on top of him? Was he forced to sit there while man after man came and hit on her? Had he-
“Because I told you that I’m in love with you, Zoe, and you gave me the brush off,” Trevor said, shocking her more than she would have ever thought possible. “Do you have any idea how many women I’ve said that to?” Trevor asked, not bothering to look at her as he navigated the back roads home.
“I don’t know,” she answered quietly.
“Only you, Zoe. I’ve never said it to another woman, never had to and do you know how it made me feel when you dismissed me the way that you did?” Trevor demanded. “Or how it felt to be rejected after I told you that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you?”
He didn’t give her a chance to speak and that was probably for the best since he’d left her speechless.
“I love you, Zoe, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I swear that if you tell me some bullshit like it’s only because of the baby, I will pull this truck over and give you the spanking you have coming,” Trevor said, making her eyes tear up, not because she thought he’d hurt her, he wouldn’t, but because he made her feel loved.
No one ever took care of her the way he did or looked after her or just made her smile. The few times she’d had a boyfriend before, none of them had ever defended her the way that he had. Most of them simply ignored her or dumped her.
As difficult as it had been the first time that she’d trusted Trevor, Zoe realized that she was going to have to do it again and risk her heart. There would never be another man that made her feel the way that he did or loved her as much as she hoped that he loved her.
“At this point, I don’t know what to say or do to show you how much you mean to me. I tell you that I love you and you play it off. I tell you that I want to buy you a house where we can raise our family and you ignore me. I know tonight was not the best first date, but you know what?” he asked, pulling onto their street. “I don’t care if no one knew that we were together for the last couple of months and I could care even less if they have a problem with it.”
He pulled into their driveway, threw the truck in park and killed the engine, but he didn’t make a move to get out. “I don’t care what I have to do, Zoe. I’m not letting you go. I’ve fucked up big time and I’m sorry, but there’s nothing that I can do to change the past. I won’t sit here and lie to you and tell you that I’ll never screw up again because we both know that I will. I will never hurt you on purpose, Zoe. You have to know that.”
Trevor sighed heavily as he rubbed his hands down his face. “I’m not going to push you tonight, Zoe, but you need to understand that I’m not letting you go. Not now, not ever. I’ll let you return to your apartment if that’s really what you want, but you should know that if you move out, I’ll just buy the building or the one next to it and if you quit your job and go somewhere else I’ll just follow you there, too,” he said calmly, which was a little terrifying, she had to admit.
“Oh, my God, are you talking about stalking me?” Zoe asked, trying not to smile. It was really sweet in a Bradford-kind of way.
“Yes, but if it comes before a judge, we’ll just call it a little misunderstanding,” he said with a shrug.
“And you think the judge will buy that?” she asked, reaching for her door because she was exhausted and even though she was trusting him not to break her heart, she still needed a little more time to adjust to this and figure a few things out.
“Probably, they bought it the last few times that I had to use that excuse, so I have no doubt they’ll buy it this time.”
She was about to ask what he was talking about but then decided it that it was probably for the best that she didn’t know.
Chapter 32
“What the hell is wrong with me?” Trevor asked no one in particular in the dark living room, but Toby felt the need to answer him by licking his toes again.
With a small sigh, he pulled his foot back only to have Max take that as his cue to renew his earlier attack. He winced as he gently pulled his foot away from the playful pup and sat up, dropping his head back and wondering why he’d let Zoe push him away again.
Well, at least she wasn’t sleeping in her own apartment tonight. That was progress, Trevor thought as the two puppies worked as one to pull his blanket away from him. To make them happy, he made a half-hearted attempt to pull the blanket back, but after a minute, he let them win. Of course, if he hadn’t snuck into her apartment four hours ago and shut off her heat, she’d probably still be over there “thinking.”
For a solid week, he’d forced himself to give her space so that she could figure things out. Although he was allowed to check up on her, bring her food, help take care of the dogs and take her to the doctors to get her stitches out, they hadn’t talked much. Their conversations were short and sweet and did nothing to ease the nagging feeling in his gut that she was going to leave him.
If his uncle hadn’t suspended his ass for a week from work for the incident at the bar, he would have asked for the time off to help take care of Zoe. His uncle gave her a paid week’s vacation so that she could catch up on some rest. Granted, he could have really done without the lecture when his uncle dropped by to tell him that he was suspended.
Of course, his uncle hadn’t known the reason behind the fight and he hadn’t told him because he didn’t want to embarrass Zoe again. He allowed his uncle to rant about not acting like an idiot, especially when he had a baby on the way and that he was lucky that there were plenty of witnesses willing to state that they saw Hank put his hands on him first. After his uncle ripped him a new one, he went next door and from what he’d heard, fussed over Zoe for the next hour.
His uncle had been kind enough to stop by to see him on his way out to tell him that he’d kick his ass the next time he got in a bar fight. Then again, his uncle had stopped by the next day with a six-pack and a grunted apology for threatening to kick his ass. As it turned out, his uncle had overheard the real reason behind the fight when he was waiting in line for the coffee truck and heard Hank retell the tale with a few added choice words about Zoe. If his uncle hadn’t fired the man on the spot, Trevor was pretty sure that he would have landed his ass in jail that night after he’d hunted the bastard down and beat Hank’s ass into a coma.
