He stopped in his tracks, frowning. “It’s—what the hell did I do?”
“You were flirting with her,” I said. “That woman at the bar.”
“Kathleen.”
“I don’t care what her name is?—“
“We’re old friends,” he said. “That’s it.”
“You were laughing,” I said, and I heard how unhinged that sounded the second it came out of my mouth. “You were laughing and she was touching her glass and you looked—you looked like you were having a great time and you just—you asked me to dinner a week ago, Nash?—”
“And you said no,” he said.
I stopped.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m—I’m being crazy. This is so stupid, I’m drunk?—”
I tried to walk past him, shame making me want to cry all over again—but he stopped me with a hand on my arm.
“You’re not drunk,” he said. “You don’t get drunk.”
He wasn’t wrong. Two glasses of wine at Summit and Vine, one screwdriver here. I wasn’t drunk. I was just—undone, which was somehow worse.
“I know,” I said. “I know I’m not drunk. I’m just—“ I pressed my hand over my eyes. “I’m being ridiculous. You didn’t do anything wrong. You asked me to dinner and I said no and you’re allowed to talk to whoever you want and I don’t have any?—“
“Maggie.”
“—right to be upset about it, I know that, I just?—”
“Maggie.” Quieter. “Stop.”
I stopped.
His hand was still on my arm, warm and steady. I looked up into his hazel eyes.
“I’m not gonna fuck her,” he said, voice low. “I don’t want to fuck anyone but you. I don’t want anyone in my bed but you. If you don’t like seeing me with other women…need you to know I’m not with other women. You’re the only thing on my mind, I can’t fuckingstopthinking of you.”
My breath was stuck in my throat. All the sounds of the bar had just…faded away.
“You can go back to that table,” he said. “But it’s driving me crazy watching you with him.”
I didn’t have anything else to say.
Knew now that he was feelingexactlythe way I did.
So the only thing left to do was to kiss him.
THIRTEEN
maggie
This kiss…itwas different. It sealed something, more like a promise than any kiss before it, than any kiss I’d ever had.
I wasn’t going back. From this moment forward, I washis. I wasn’t going to deny it, not anymore.
And that meant this kiss wasn’t slow, wasn’t careful. I flung my arms around his neck and he stumbled forward at the sudden shift in weight—my back hitting the wall next to the bathroom door, one leg hitching up around his waist without me even thinking I was going to do that. He growled against my lips, our breaths coming in quick, desperate gasps.
His arms were around me, pulling me—we stumbled into the bathroom and he yanked the door shut behind us.
