His gaze snapped back to mine.
Silence stretched.
Tension crackled.
For a second, I thought he might say yes.
Instead, he shook his head once, slow.
“Not tonight.”
Rejection stung—but something in his tone softened it.
Not tonight.
Not no.
Just … not yet.
He opened the door, cool hallway air spilling inside.
“Sleep,” he said. “Tomorrow could get messy.”
He stepped out, then paused again.
“And Ella?”
“Yes?”
His eyes slid slowly over me, heat unmistakable now.
“You keep looking at me like that …”
My breath caught.
“… and one of these nights, I’m not leaving.”
16
KANE
Imade it three steps from her door before I stopped.
Just stood there in the hallway like an idiot, hand still raised halfway to my side, staring at the closed door like it might open again on its own. Like she might appear in the doorway and give me an excuse—any excuse—to go back inside and stop pretending I had any self-control left where she was concerned.
I couldn't believe I'd made it out of that apartment without ripping her clothes off.
Fuck.
What was I getting into?
The more it happened—her forwardness, that direct honesty that cut through every defense I'd spent years building like they were made of paper—the harder it was to say no. The harder it was to remember why Ishouldsay no. Why walking away was supposedly the right move even when every instinct I had was screaming at me to turn around and finish what we'd started.
You.
The word echoed in my head like a bell that wouldn't stop ringing, wouldn't fade no matter how much distance I put between us.
She'd said it twice now. Once in the café with that mix of boldness and vulnerability that had knocked me completely sideways. And again tonight, softer but somehow more certain, like she'd had time to think about it and decided she meant it even more the second time around.
