“Used to,” he mutters.
A deep breath fills my lungs as my heart pounds. “Someone you might… learn to love again?”
“Whatever happened to being patient?” he asks with a soft teasing in his voice that sends my nerves skyrocketing. “I have to remember how tolikeyou first.”
A real grin spreads across his lips. It’s the first genuine one I’ve seen since I arrived, and gods, it melts me.
I step closer, drawn to his lightness, but hesitate and instead only return his smile.
“Whatever it takes, darling.”
He clocks my uncertainty and closes the gap between us in one fluid step, then wraps his arms around my neck, fingers threading into my hair.
“Tell you what,” he says. “I’ll make a deal with you.”
I hug his waist instinctively, clinging to the solid comfort of having him close. “Mmm, a proposition,” I say, forcing a playful edge to my voice. “Consider my interest piqued.”
A half-grin tips his lips lopsided. “If you promise you’ll come back safely, I’ll take you on a date.”
“Will you now?” I tilt my head, smile widening despite myself. “What kind of date?”
“Dinner and a movie, perhaps,” he teases, his thumb tracing idle circles at the nape of my neck.
My smile stretches further. “If memory serves, that was our first date once upon a time.”
“Maybe it could be our… second first date?” he says, eyes searching mine with that quiet intensity.
My eye closes as I take a deep inhale, hope flooding my chest in a reckless rush despite my best efforts to dam it up.
“Don’t assume I’ll fuck on the first date,” I finally say.
He coughs in surprise, a startled laugh bubbling up as his cheeks darken with a flush that’s utterly endearing. “You did last time.”
“Yeah,” I breathe, as I lean in closer, forehead resting against his. “I guess I did.”
“We didn’t even make it to the date,” he says with a quiet laugh.
“No,” I agree. “We definitely didn’t.”
Our laughter fades as my heart thunders, and Bash guides me closer until our noses brush.
“Come back to me,” he whispers. “I know I’ve been difficult—”
“I understand why you have been,” I interrupt.
He shakes his head with a sigh. “The anger was just… fucking heavy, Xen, and after carrying it so long, I wanted you to feel it too. Iwantedto stay mad.”
“You had every right to be.”
“Yeah, maybe,” he murmurs, his eyes locking onto mine, raw and unguarded in a way I haven’t seen since I walked back into his life. “There are three versions of you in my head. The one Iloved so damn much, the one I hated for walking away, and now this one, standing right here. And I don’t know what to do with the Xeni in front of me.”
“I know I’ve changed.”
“So have I,” he admits in a low voice. “Life didn’t exactly hand us a choice, did it?”
I grunt in agreement, the sound thick in my throat as his fingers scrape along my nape. I’m breathless under the weight of his nearness, watching those intelligent eyes wrestle with our reality.
He focuses again, that sad smile cutting deeper than any anger ever could. “I wanted to hate you for so long that I forgot there was another choice.”
