“Don’t what? Tell you I’m so fucking glad you broke through my barrier and made me listen to you?” My thumb swiped her skin. “Tell you that you, the most incredible woman, came into my life when I didn’t expect it? That even when I was hating you, I wasn’t able to get enough of you?”
Her eyes briefly closed.
“When did you know you had feelings for me?” I asked.
“In Lauderdale.” Her eyelids opened. “At the restaurant, when I thought you were on a date with another woman, I was seething in jealousy. Probably before that, honestly, but when I saw you with her, things clicked.” She smiled for the first time this evening, and I had to touch it, so my thumb dived down until it was tracing her lips. “Hayden called me out on my feelings, and I wanted to murder him. I drank my face off instead.”
“Sounds like something I would do—or I should say, something I’ve been doing since I shut you out. I’m not proud of the amount of liquor I’ve been drinking.”
Her brows lifted. “You’ve been hurting?”
I nodded.
“Good.” She smiled wider, touching the top of my chest. “When I saw you with Ellie at gymnastics, the way you looked at her, my heart exploded despite how angry I was at you. You understand the highs and lows of being a single parent, and I’m so attracted to that. Along with the way you prioritize her.”
“That’s all you like about me?”
“What? You want a like list?”
I chuckled. “Amuse me.”
Her hand lifted, but a finger stayed, and she drew lines across my shirt. “I like being the target of your gaze. I like relishing in the intensity of it. You have no idea how it makes me feel. And I like how you turn almost every conversation into banter. How you make me want to fight and how you make me want to love.” Her finger stilled. “But I also like the other side of you. The side that isn’t tender. That craves dominance. Because I want that. I need that.” Her palm pressed against me.
“Our chemistry, Colson, is something I’ve never experienced. The way you possess my body and know exactly what it needs. The way you see me …” Her voice faded, and a heat spread over her face. “And how you make me feel seen. Desired. Worshipped even when I’m in your presence.” Her head tilted. “You made it easy to hate you”—a small laugh escaped her lips—“but I don’t want to feel that anymore.”
“What do you want?”
“I’ve told you.”
I shook her. “What do youreallywant?”
She turned quiet, as if she was thinking about my question. “Someone who’s going to love and care about my daughter and understand that my relationship with her comes above anything else. Someone who’s going to give me things I can’t give myself, like support. Attention. Love.” Her tongue stuck out between her teeth. “Not a love that’s expected. I’m talkingabout an epic kind of love. One that I feel, even in my bones.” She locked her hands together. “But also someone who’s not going to abandon me—at least not intentionally.”
“You’re talking about a forever kind of love.”
She nodded. “I am.”
“And you think that’s possible between us?”
“Are you saying it’s not?—”
“I’m not saying anything, Sophie. I’m asking you the question.” My arm moved around her back.
“It’s early. It’s been rocky.” She laughed, and that sound made me tighten my grip on her. “I still have so much to learn about you. We need more time and growth. Moments and memories and experiences.”
I could tell that even though the words were coming out, this conversation still wasn’t any easier on her.
“But, yes, I see the potential. I feel it. I want to have it.” She searched my eyes. “Do you?”
I drew her in closer and returned both hands to her face. “Before the Gordon nightmare, yes, I wanted that.”
“And now that it’s post-nightmare?”
I allowed my stare to move over her face, focusing on her eyes and lips, the softness I felt beneath my palms, the way the blonde framed it, those pieces tickling my skin.
This wasn’t the first time this thought had beaten inside me. I’d felt it before. We just hadn’t been in a place where I could execute it.
Like she had said, things between us had been rocky.
