I let out of breath. “Even if I did, we’re not going there, okay?”
“Yeah, sure, keep saying that. In the meantime, I’ll stay up here, thank you.”
My anger boils over. “Is that what it’ll take to get you down? You want me to stick my tongue down your throat? You want to ride my dick? Want me to screw you till you can’t see straight? Throwing a tantrum isn’t going to get you what you want.”
She blinks, stunned into silence for half a second. Then her incredulous laughter echoes in the night.
“Wow. You really think you’re that important, huh? You’re so goddamn full of yourself. I don’t need to prove anything to you. Ifanything, I’m proving something tohim.”
I falter. “Who? Isaac?”
“Yeah.” She peers over the edge again at the water, her tone thickening with bitterness. “He blames me for his cheating. He sent me this long-ass message tonight saying I’m to blame for what he did because I wasn’t ‘passionate’ enough. I wasn’t exciting. I was the boring, steady presence that he needed, but she was his fire.”
“And you’re listening to this dickhead? You’re up on the roof at midnight to prove something to a guy who doesn’t deserve it?”
I’m already climbing the rickety staircase as I talk. Because enough. I’m done arguing with her. I take the steps two at a time, emerging on the roof in seconds.
Blake turns to face me, her expression awash with resentment. “He said I was his safe place but that I never made him feel wanted.”
I swallow my irritation, all of it directed at Isaac Grant. “He’s an idiot, Blake.”
“Maybe, or maybe he’s right. Maybe that’s who I am. The safe, comfortable one.” She gives me a pointed look. “The one men come to for comfort or to talk to when the world is too loud. But then when they crave the heat, when they want to burn, they go somewhere else.”
“That’s not who you are.”
She ignores my gruff statement. I don’t even think she notices me anymore.
“But you know what?” she says angrily. “Fuck him and everythinghewants. What about what I want? You know whatIwant, Wyatt?”
I step closer, careful, as if I’m approaching a wounded animal. “What do you want, Blake?”
“I want someone toneedme. Not just love me. I want to be wanted so badly it hurts. I want to be someone’s obsession. Theirundoing.” Her voice shakes, but she doesn’t look away, and I suddenlycan’t breathe. “I want to be someone’s passion. Not their safe place. Not their steady plus-one who makes them look good because I’m John Logan’s daughter. I want to be the thing they lose themselves in.”
I can’t take my eyes off her. The fire burning bright in her eyes. The moon glinting off her skin like frost. She’s incredible. But she’s also a live wire right now, and I need to temper that fire before it consumes us both.
I inhale, filling my lungs with much-needed oxygen. “I get you’re upset about that message. But jumping off the boathouse isn’t the solution. It’s just you being reckless.”
“Maybe I want to be reckless for once. Maybe I’m sick of everyone thinking I’m safe and small and forgettable.”
“Jesus, Logan,” I say hoarsely. “No one who’s ever looked at you could forget you.”
“Youdid.”
Her hard, emotionless eyes crack something wide open inside me. I move closer, but she shifts her gaze back to the water, banishing me from her gaze.
“I’m so forgettable that you didn’t even remember mauling me on Christmas Eve,” she mutters. And then she’s laughing again, a high, hysterical tinge to it. “We hooked up, Wyatt, andyou didn’t fucking remember. So that’s the effect I have on people, apparently. They don’t want me, and they forget all about—”
“I remembered.”
She spins around, her gaze flying to mine. “What?”
“The next morning. I remembered.” Shame constricts my throat, and I have to clear it before continuing. “I remember exactly what happened that night in the kitchen. I just pretended not to.”
“Why?” she demands, stunned by the confession.
“Because I’m an asshole, and I knew if I opened that door, wewould never be able to close it.”
Her breath catches.
