“You arethemost—”
“And that’s not even taking into account that you’ve got a cute dog and want kids and can make me laugh.” He grins at me again, the bastard, but his eyes are deadly serious. “Gotta admit, when you add it all up, it paints a pretty nice picture,Delilah.”
Shit!
“He’s not even technically my dog! And who says I want kids?” I snap, latching onto an issue atrandom.
“Youwantkids.”
“Oh? You’repsychicnow?”
“You love thosetwins.”
“Love?” I shake my head. “Like I said before, the twins arefine. I guess. If you like kids, that is. Which, I’m not even admitting I do.” I pause. “I mean, if I could guarantee that someday I’d pop out two just like those…” I nod toward Potter and Harry. “If I knew they were going to bethatcute… maybe it would be aconversation.”
“Your kids will be cute.” Luca’s voice is absolutelycertain.
“There’s no way to know that for sure. It’s all a big genetic clusterfuck, if you ask me. Might as well pull traits out of a hat atrandom.”
“Delilah.” He waits until I meethiseyes.
“Yes?”
“It’stoolate.”
My brow furrows. “What’stoolate?”
“The ice princess act. Not buyingit,babe.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I sayhaughtily.
His eyes glitter in challenge. “There you go again, trying to freeze me out for saying something real. Hate to break it to you — I have no problem with the cold. So you can act like a frozen-hearted bitch all you please, but like I said… not buying it. I’veseenyou.”
“You’re a lunatic, Luca Buchanan. Totally delusional.” I sit up fully and start to climb to my feet but his hand lands on my elbow in an iron grip and I find my progress halted completely. My eyes fly to his in alarm and indignation. “Let goofme!”
“In a minute,” he murmurs. “Have some shit I want to say to youfirst.”
“This isbullying.”
“No, this is me trying to have an honest fucking conversation with you.” His hand drops away. “You’re not interested in that, fine. Not gonna force you. Not my style. But neither is seeing something I want and not going after it with everythingIhave.”
And what I want is you,he doesn’t add, eyes burning.Heavenhelpme.
My pulse is pounding. I know I should walk away, just to prove a point, but I can’t. I settle back on the grass and arch mybrows.
“I’mlistening.”
“Good.” He leans in and, like a repelling magnet, I lean away to maintain some breathing room. “I’ve seen the way you look at those kids, the way you care about your friends, the way you clean up your brother’s messes even when he doesn’t deserve your loyalty. I see you suffering through a shitty situation in silence, rather than bothering the people closest to you with your problems. I see you, Delilah. Didn’t before — when we first met, I’ll be honest, I assumed you were a beautiful piece of wrapping paper over anemptybox.”
Ihuff.
“First second you opened your sassy fuckin’ mouth and flashed those big, beautiful brown eyes at me, I realized I was wrong. Rare, but it happens.” His eyes simmer with banked heat. “Guess what I’m trying to say is… I shouldn’t have judged you before I got toknowyou.”
I bite the inside of my cheek to distract myself from the dangerous somersaults my stomach isdoing.
“Don’t worry about it.” I swallow. “I’m the one who’s acted like a colossal bitch to you, over the past fewmonths.”
He doesn’t agree with me, but he doesn’t disagree either. We fall silent in a momentary truce — two almost-strangers under a tree sharing truths I’m not quite sure we’re ready to be sharing. But, as I’m coming to learn, that’s simply Luca: charging in full speed, one hundred percent effort, whether or not you’re readyforhim.