“No?” I repeated.
“No. You’ve been acting weird all week and then just ask me to go somewhere with you? No.”
“No?”
She laughed. “Yes, Falcon. No.”
Sucking my teeth, I started the car. “Girl, you got me fucked up. You coming on this trip even if I have to kidnap your ass. I was just asking to be polite.”
“Falcon—”
“I know I haven’t been as present this week, and I apologize. I had a lot on my mind, and I should have communicated that instead of locking it in. Truthfully, I’m not used to considering another person and letting them in on what’s going on with me. I don’t make the same mistake twice, though, so it’ll never happen again.”
Eli sighed. “Was it about my brother?”
“Yeah. I know that I want you, Eli, but I can’t deny how selfish and guilty I feel. Plus, my feelings for you are deepening, and I just needed some time to figure some shit out.”
“I think we should just play it safe and keep this fake, baby. We were silly to think we could indulge in each other for a fewmonths and not want more. I know what’s at risk, and I would never ask you to make a sacrifice like that for me.”
“You don’t have to ask. I’m offering.”
“And I’m declining. I can’t come between you and Junior, and I can’t make things weird for the team. This is bigger than us, so we’re going to stick to the events Justine had planned and that’s it. I have to go though. I’m at the studio. I’ll see you at the end of the month for the next event.”
“Eli, you got me fuc?—”
All I could do was laugh when she hung up the phone. I’d let her have her little attitude for now, because I fucked up this past week, but she was a damn fool if she thought this was the end of us.
Chapter
Fifteen
Eli
One Week Later
At first,I thought I was hearing things. It took a few minutes for the haziness of my sleep to wear off, and then I heard Falcon’s voice. For a while, I just lay there, refusing to believe this man was in my damn room. He’d meant it when he said he wouldn’t make the mistake of not communicating with me again.
Every day for the past week, he called and texted. As much as I didn’t want to tell him how much I appreciated the effort, I did. It was so easy for him to buy me things and take me out, but when the extra layer of physical intimacy was added and things started to get more vulnerable, he pulled back on me.
While I understood this was new to him, I wasn’t sure if it was worth it for us to go through. It wasn’t like this would last forever. What was the point of opening him up and exposing him to being loved if it was going to be over soon? It was smarter to just end this now—that was what I’d convinced myself of. So this trip that he thought we were about to take couldn’t happen.
Sitting up in bed, I groaned and wiped my eyes.
“Falcon Cameron Grove, the fuck?—”
When he extended a coffee cup in my direction with a cocky smile, I snapped my mouth shut. I took a sip, savoring the warmth of my favorite latte. I smiled and did a little dance in bed before returning my attention to the man casually invading my space . . . and my closet.
“Falcon, what are you doing here?”
“Packing your bags. Get up and get ready to go.”
“I thought I told you I wasn’t going anywhere with you.”
“And I thought I told you that you were.”
My eyes rolled as I set the coffee on my nightstand and crossed my arms over my chest. “You can’t make me,” I whined, but the longer he pulled outfits out of my closet and put them on the bed, the less resistance I had. “And what about my brother?”
“I told him I was taking you out of town. He threatened me not to have you bent over somebody’s balcony, but that was it.”
