Perfect.
We were back to the game.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head, already coming to terms with where this was going. “Alright, well this has been fun. It’s lovely seeing your face in daylight once again. Have a good one,” I said, turning around and going to shut the door.
I nearly had it shut when he spoke again, voice darker than sin. “You’ve been avoiding me.”
I turned back to him slowly, cocking my head ever so slightly. “Were you wanting to chat? Possibly over a set of tea and crumpets?”
“You don’t like tea.”
I squinted at him, forehead scrunching. “How could you possibly know that?”
He stepped forward and leaned against the doorframe, forcing me farther into my apartment and effectively trapping me from slamming the door in his face again. “You don’t like tea. You don’t even like coffee, unless it’s your fancy as fuck espresso lattes. Your favorite color is purple, but you’re also extremely particular over the different shades and you could rant about it for an hour, at least. And your favorite classic book isFrankensteinbecause you have an infatuation with the dark sides of life and death, like a fucking weirdo.”
Well, fuck.
I sniffed. “I’ll have you know tha–”
He continued, stepping forward once more. Twice. I moved backwards. “I’m not finished. You only like desserts that have cream cheese icing on them. You haven’t had a boyfriend since you were nineteen because you’re afraid of commitment or something. Your favorite flowers are white jasmine. And you’re the farthest thing from a disrespectful brat, but you don’t feel like you always get the attention you truly crave which makes you act out like a little bitch sometimes.”
Well, now I was properlyoffended.
And confused as to how he knew that much about me.
No one knew that much about me.
“Okay, stalker, I need you to sto–”
He pushed me lightly into the foyer wall, leaving my door wide open as he towered over me, effectively dismissing any personal space. My hoodie pressed against his midsection and I became painfully aware of my lack of undergarments at that moment. “You’re scared of life. You’re scared of living. And you’re even more scared of taking a chance and falling in love. But the best part of this situation is that I’m tired of waiting for you to open your goddamned eyes. So, you don’t have a fucking choice.”
My breath stilled in my chest.
I tilted my gaze toward him, brain short-circuiting. I almost didn’t know what to say.
There was zero sass left in my defeated tone as I responded, “Are you finished?”
“Two more things,” he whispered, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear before leaning down. He forced a shiver through me as his stubble grated against my ear and face. “You want this, or you wouldn’t have let me into your apartment without ruining my chance of future children, and you’re not watching CNC porn. You’re watching another one of your god-awfulteenage dramas. CNC porn would be too exciting for you.”
Dickweed.
Deciding against my brain’s judgment, I fisted his t-shirt as he stood up straight, ensuring he wasn’t going anyway. I watched his eyes as he studied mine, and I questioned him more than I ever had. Most of all, I questioned why he wanted a life with me, why he wasn’t giving me a choice to fight against him, when I was the one who was terrified of everything and he wasn’t.
I said exactly that. “I’m scared.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know what this means. We shared one night. We would be crazy to act off of that.”
“I know that, too. I’ve thought about it all week. But you know just as well as I do that this has been more than a single night. Our silent feuds were just years of foreplay.”
Tears lined my eyes at his words and I cursed my hidden emotions. I hoped I could just blame it on PMSing. “Yeah?”
Lamest response of the year.
He chuckled, using his forefinger and thumb on my chin to tip my head up even more. “Baby girl, you haven’t left my thoughts for a single minute. I evendreamt about you. Do you know how obsessed a man has to be in order to dream about living life with his girl? We prefer sex and chaos in those things.”
A wet laugh escaped me. “I don’t know what this means. I hardly know anything about you. You can’t just move in right away, you know?”
