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“Prove it.”
He snorted a disbelieving laugh. “How?”
“I don’t know. Just…prove you’re not perfect.”
“Okay, fine. I’m an asshole to my mother.”
“Some would say she deserves it.”
“Maybe. Or maybe no one deserves the things I’ve said to her in recent days. I’m a dick to her. You’ve seen it for yourself.”
I rolled my eyes but had to concede the point.
“And then there’s you.”
“Me? I’m a failing of yours?”
“Hardly. But you make me realize how damaged I am.” I didn’t understand, and my face must have shown that, because he went on. “You make me realize how bad I am at trusting other people. I’m very good at being the responsible one, but when it comes to letting someoneelsebe the responsible one? That’s hard for me.”
“I don’t get it.” I tilted my head. “You don’t trust me to be responsible? What does that mean?”
“No, it means… How can I put this? I’m choosing to trust you. But it’s hard. I want to trust you, and let myself love you, but I’m scared.”
I put my hand out and he took my fingers.
“If I let you all the way inside…” He swallowed. “Don’t get me wrong, I want to do that, but…am I making sense?”
“Of course.” I did get it. Even if I didn’t love what it meant. He still didn’t completely trust me. “Trust has to be earned.”
“But you trustme, even after what Adam did to you,” he said. “I admire that. You just walked right back to me and let me in again.”
I didn’t want to bring Adam back into the conversation, but I had to clear up his idea that I was somehow a guru at the trust thing. “It wasn’t like that.You’rethe one who taught me that someone can be responsible and loving. You showed me how to have high standards. Youmademe trust you by being who you are.”
“And you made me decide that I had torisktrusting you because of whoyouare.”
I laughed. “I’m glad. But, why, though? I’d understand if you didn’t want to risk it with me. I’ve made a lot of mistakes.”
“First, to be shallow, have you looked at yourself? I mean, have you looked in a mirror lately? Because you’re one of the sexiest guys I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
I remembered my naked body in the pictures Daniel had taken and felt my cheeks start heating up. “Maybe it’s pheromones? Your attraction to me? Because I’m notthathot.”
“You are that hot.”
I took a sip of my soda, not sure what to say and settled on, “So are you.”
“And then there’s how I feel when I’m alone with you, which is the best feeling I’ve ever had,” he said. “Maybe I should have mentioned that first instead of your looks. And maybe Ishouldn’ttell you that I’d already rather have you over just about anything else in the world.” Daniel frowned. “I worry my feelings for you are so strong I’ll do something we both regret.”
“Like what?”
He looked away. My cheeks flooded with heat as I recalled his desperate words whenever we’d gotten off together—wanting me closer and closer, wanting to be inside me, wanting more than we could have.
I pressed on instead of demanding an answer. “So, you want me more than you think you should, and you have a bad attitude with your mother. You’re a nightmare, Daniel McPeak. A total nightmare of a human being.”
Daniel’s lips quirked up into the smile that I already loved so much. “It doesn’t make you afraid? How much I care about you already?”
I remembered how fast Adam and I had fallen for each other, the vicious need followed by sudden raw, intense emotions that we hadn’t been able to control. “Isn’t that how it works?”
Daniel frowned, like he was thinking it over. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
