He exhales slowly. “No.”
My chest tightens. “Then why?”
His jaw shifts slightly, like he’s choosing his words carefully. “I told myself I was here for information,” he admits.
I look away, staring down at the coffee table in front of me. “Yeah,” I murmur. “I figured.” I guess Scott, Alice, and Jett were right earlier.
“That wasn’t the real reason.”
My head snaps back toward him. “What?”
His eyes meet mine, steady and unflinching. “I needed a reason to be around you,” he concedes.
Everything in me stills.
“And if it was about the case,” he continues, quieter now, “then it wasn’t… personal.”
Oh.
Oh.
“That’s a pretty shitty excuse,” I manage.
“It worked,” he says.
I let out a breath that almost turns into a laugh. “Did it?” Because he’s here. Again.
His gaze drops to my mouth for half a second before lifting again. “No.”
My pulse stutters. “That’s not fair,” I say softly.
“What isn’t?”
“You deciding how close to get based on what makes it easier for you.”
His expression tightens. “You think this is easy?”
“No,” I admit. “I think it’s controlled.”
Silence stretches for uncomfortably long. Then, he sighs, “it was supposed to be.”
My chest aches in a way I simultaneously dislike andadore. “And now?”
He leans in just slightly. Not enough to touch but enough to shift the air. “Now I don’t think I’m doing a very good job of that.”
My breath catches. This is… the moment. The one I don’t think I’ll come back from.
I don’t move. But he does. He settles his left hand on my right knee. Gentle, like he’s testing the waters.
When I don’t pull away, I feel his grip slightly harden, a final warning before he moves in. He leans down, breath fanning across my lips.
No turning back, no turning-
My phone rings on the coffee table beside me.
Are you kidding?Are you-
That’s Scott’s ring tone. He never calls me outside of work. He texts; that’s his thing. He loathes talking on the phone. He says it makes him think of talking on the rig radio and makes his heart rate speed up.
