I sag against the floor as Gavin stays seated in front of me with his legs stretched out in front of him.
“Pretty straightforward and blunt of you.” I exhale a heavy breath, trying to mask how this man makes my heart flutter. If he wants every version of me, then I want his, too.
“Fine. But only if you do the same. Show me yours, and I’ll show you mine, kind of a deal?” I offer an ultimatum.
“What do you want to know?”
“Why don’t you want to talk about your parents? Why do you not want me going into the basement?” His hands tremble. “Forgive me for asking, but I’d like to know,” I murmur.
“Ask me something else.” He blinks at me.
“Fine.” I look around his cabin and sigh. “Would you ever live somewhere else that isn’t this haunted cabin?”
He shakes his head.
“I’ve lived here my entire life. Merelyn is here. When I joined the military, I didn’t come back here for fifteen years. Now that I’m here, I haven’t been given a reason to leave.”
“So if you find a reason to leave, would you?”
He replies with silence and a soul-searching gaze.
“Well, don’t you want to see the world?”
“I’ve seen enough.”
Rolling my eyes, I smile.
“I love to travel. You know, there’s this place in Italy. It’s called Cinque Terre. It means The Five Islands.It’s beautiful. Thewater is so blue.” I look up at his wooden ceiling while I picture the hot sun kissing my skin as I remember the train rides. “I went there one time when I backpacked Europe as a gift to myself for surviving high school. I ordered a sweet Aperol Spritz after cliff-jumping into the water. It was,” I close my eyes and throw my head back as I reminisce about those reckless yet fun times, giggling, “so much fun. Would you ever want to go?”
“Too many people. Every tourist attraction has way too many people. I don’t like it. Why would I want to go to a beach when there’s one here? It’s just water and sand, then when you get back to your car, you smell like salt and have to wash yourself off, and yet sand still gets all over your car.”
“God, you’re so grumpy.” I giggle again, taking another small shot of tequila.
“I like the way you laugh,” he says softly.
Once more, my cheeks burn until I feel the blush in my cheeks and chest.
I can’t hold the stare he’s giving me. A sensation between my thighs throbs, and I rub them together. Despite the blizzard, I suddenly have the urge to run a cold bath.
“I wish I could hear yours,” I point out, raising a curious brow. I hate that he’s always alone up here in the mountains. There’s a whole world out there for him to see, but he chooses to isolate himself. Why?
I want to know what happened to him.
He takes in a deep breath and takes another swig of his beer.
“Truth or dare?”
“Dare.” I’m taunting him to give me a hard one. Instead, something shifts inside Gavin.
“I dare you to tell me what I have to do to get you to tell me why you still tie yourself to someone who did those things to you?”
I peer at him.
“When you went back to that wreckage, you put your ringback on and didn’t take it off until today. Why? After everything you went through? Why don’t you just cut him off from your mind?”
I glance at Gavin before I can keep running my mouth with unfiltered thoughts. I expect to see a solace, happy expression full of hope, but he’s giving me that hard ass, masculine, signature look again.
He’s dead serious about it.
