“It can’t happen again.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re—” I struggle to find words that don’t sound completely insane. “Because this is wrong. All of it. You’re stalking me. You assaulted Josh. You?—”
“Saved you from a panic attack and removed a man who wouldn’t respect your boundaries?” He asks, smoothly. “Yeah. Real terrible behavior on my part.”
“That’s not the point?—”
“Then what is?” He cups my face, forcing me to meet his gaze. “Tell me, Bambi. What are you so afraid of?”
You.I want to say.I’m afraid of you.But not in a way that makes sense.I’m afraid of how badly I still want you even when you’ve made it clear to me how dangerous you are.
“I have to go.” I say instead, pulling away from his touch. “Fallon’s waiting.”
He lets me move past him, but before I can open my door, he stops it with his hand. “When you think about me.” He says, leaning in close so that his warm, minty breath fans across my ear. “Remember that I’m thinking about you, too. Constantly.” His thumb strokes the side of my face. “And Bambi, just so you know, the next time I get you alone, I’m not leaving until you admit what this is.”
Then he steps back and turns away.
I climb into the car on shaky legs and don’t let myself look at him again as I put my keys in the ignition.
“So...” Fallon starts as soon as the car moves. “Bambi, huh?”
I roll my eyes. “It’s just a dumb nickname he gave me. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“I hate to state the obvious, but he’s hot.”
I don't respond.
“Like, unfairly hot.” She continues. “And clearly into you.”
“Don’t start.”
“D, that man was eye-fucking you like crazy.” She says, biting back a smile. “And you were totally eye-fucking him back.”
“I was not.” I say, even though I know that’s a lie. “Besides, he’s just a friend.”
Fallon nods slowly, but I can tell she doesn’t believe me. “Well, for what it’s worth, I like him. And I never like any of the assholes you date.”
Only because she doesn’t know him.
Fallon keeps talking about him on the rest of the drive home, but I’m only half listening. All I can think about is the feel of his hand on my face. The sound of his voice in my ear. And the promise in his words.
The next time I get you alone, I’m not leaving until you admit what this is.
The thing is, I know exactly what this is, because it’s all we’ll ever be.Friends.Anything more than that doesn’t work for me.
He can have my body. He can have my attention. He can even have this twisted attraction to him I can’t seem to shake. But I won’t fall in love with him.I can’t.So whatever this thing between us is, it ends before it becomes that. It has to.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Dahlia
The cycling studiosmells like rubber and serious regret, which is appropriate because I’m deeply questioning why I let Fallon talk me into this.
I push through the exit doors behind her on overcooked spaghetti legs, squinting against the afternoon sun. My hair is a disaster, sweat-soaked and pasted to my forehead, and my vagina feels like it’s been kicked into oblivion. The only thing motivating me to move right now is the promise of a pedicure and the knowledge that I’ll get sixty magical minutes with that mother-fucking massage chair.
Fallon is walking ahead of me, pulling her hair loose as she scrolls through her phone looking absolutely flawless and completely unbothered by the fact that we just spent forty-five minutes getting our asses handed to us by a woman named Lexi who has probably never experienced a negative emotion in her life.
