“Delilah, hate to break it to you, but we’re alreadyhappening.”
I shake my head, as if to block his words. “I still don’t understand why youdidthis.”
Luca’s eyes narrow. “Your lease expires in two days. You had nowhere else to go, nowhere I knew you’d be safe. So I moved you in, like we agreed on lastnight.”
“We did not agree on anything! You made a unilateral decision on my behalf.” I laugh, a little crazily, as I look at my things covering the majority of his floor space. “You do realize, of course, that this isinsane?”
“Not seeing how, babe. You’re mine. I protect what’s mine. Simpleasthat.”
“Notsimple asanything! I’m not yours. We barely know each other. We aren’t dating. Hell, we’re not even friends. And you think we canlivetogether?! Even temporarily!? Areyounuts?”
His eyes get a little scary, when I say that. “You do what we did last night withbarely even friends?” He takes a step closer. “You come like that forbarely even friends? You scream out the name ofbarely even friendsand fall asleep with them wrappedaroundyou?”
I have no answers for him — none he doesn’t already know, otherwise he wouldn’t beasking.
No. I never do that with mybestfriends, let alone mybarely evenfriends. I never do that with anyoneatall.
Last night, with him… it was the first time I’ve ever been that intimate with a man. The first time I’ve let myself go, wholly and uncompromisingly. He saw the surrender in my heart as he consumed my body… and now he’s using itagainstme.
I jerk my chin higher, eyes flashing withdefiance.
He stepscloser.
“Come on, Delilah. Don’t back down now. Tell me. What was last night to you, huh?” His voice is pissed. “How are you going to explain that away? Another lapse in judgment? Another slip up? Just about the sex?” He glares at me. “Not buying it. It wasn’t just about sex. If it was about sex, we would’ve fucked months ago and moved on. Caseclosed.”
My lips presstogether.
His eyes lock on them. “You might not be able to admit it to yourself or to me, except maybe when you’re drunk out of your mind or half asleep, but this thing between us is real, and it’s notgoingaway.”
I blink. “What do you mean, when I’m half asleep or drunk out ofmymind?”
“Doesn’t matter.” He shakes his head. “What matters is, I care about you.I care about you.Why the hell won’t you justletme?”
My eyes fill with tears. His expression softens as he watches them cut angry paths down my cheeks. I don’t know how we got here, screaming at each other about moving boxes, when five minutes ago we werekissing.
It’samess.
“Can’t you see how screwed up this is?” I askbrokenly.
His eyes are steady on mine. “Yeah, I can see exactly how screwed up itis,babe.”
I get the sense he’s not talking about boxes. He’s talkingaboutme.
I dash the tears from my eyes. “Don’t turn this around on me, Luca Buchanan. I’m not the one who stole the entire contents of someone’s house against their will and started this whole stupidfight.”
“Yeah? Well I’m not the one with such intense commitment issues, she can’t see something good even when it’s standing right in frontofher.”
“I do not have commitmentissues.”
“Delilah, you won’t admit to loving the twins or your dog, let alone a man. You have bigger commitment issues than anyone I’veevermet.”
“Donot!”
“Dotoo.”
“Donot!”
“Fuck,” he curses. “I’m not having this fight with you like we’re in first fuckinggrade.”