My heart squeezes. When he says things like that, it sounds suspiciously like he means it. But he can’t, can he? Everett Donnelly doesn’t do relationships, commitment, or forever.
Those pesky little words that Sienna said to me about being the one to change him all those weeks ago come back to me. But she wasn’t right. She can’t have been.
I’m not the kind of woman who can tame a fuckboy.
He’s just…playing house for now. Protecting his career.
He can’t…he can’t want this, me, not really.
“Hey, where did you go?” he asks, his eyes bouncing between mine.
“I’m scared,” I blurt.
“I know, sweetheart. Me too.”
“I don’t mean about the baby stuff. I mean…” I close my eyes, not wanting to look at him as I say the words. “I’m scared of you.”
He stills, his grip on my waist tightening.
“Of me?”
I take a deep breath and force my eyes open again.
“I’m scared of how much it’ll hurt when you realize you no longer want me.”
It takes a second for my words to register, but the second they do, sadness washes through his eyes, and his lips turn down at the corners.
He lowers his head to mine and takes a moment.
“I deserve that. I shouldn’t expect you to believe anything I say, not with my reputation, and not with how we started. But…this doesn’t feel fake to me anymore, Bea. Hell, I’m not sure it ever did.”
His eyes bore into mine, silently begging me to believe him.
“I want…I want to keep doing this. And not because of my career or changing my reputation. I just…I want this, you, us.”
I might be too scared to admit it out loud, but I want it, too.
The life we’ve created here under this roof over the last few weeks…I can see it continuing. I can see it including our little one.
I can see us being a family here.
It might be utterly crazy and nothing but a pipe dream, but I think I want to try.
“Me too,” I whisper so quietly that if he weren’t so close, he’d never hear it.
But he does, and the most incredible smile pulls at his lips.
“Fuck,” he pants before claiming my lips all over again.
“Yeah,” I confess, my heart dangerously close to beating out of control.
And he doesn’t let me up for air until the sound of a throat clearing right behind us forces us apart.
“Parker, what the fuck?” Everett bellows as he jumps from the sofa to the sound of his sister’s and best friend’s laughter.
“So you figured out there can be benefits, then,” Parker teases while Linc walks toward Everett and high-fives him.
“Really?” I groan, watching with amazement.
