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He wasn’t sure what had come over him earlier, but when he’d seen her partner hanging all over her, looking down into her eyes like he couldn’t breathe without her, something red hot had seared through him. And he’d had to change the way she viewed him.
He couldn’t be her dirty little secret anymore. If they were going to fuck every night, he wanted the goddamn mornings, too, and everything that came in between. Yeah, giving himself to her like that, caring about her, was terrifying as hell.
But he obviously already cared.
If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have wanted to beat in her partner’s face for recognizing the fact that she was the best goddamn woman in the room. Hell, in the world. He couldn’t blame the guy for falling in love with her. Not that Mark was in love with her. He wasn’t. He was just…just…
Just something.
He glanced down at his phone, unlocked the screen, and checked the time. It was a quarter past twelve, and they’d all left the restaurant at eight. Clearly, she wasn’t coming. He stood, intending to dump out his beer and hit the sheets, but a soft knock stopped him in his tracks.
Slowly, he walked toward the door, his heart pounding a hell of a lot harder than that knock had. He peered through the peephole, and sure enough, familiar red hair and green eyes stared back at him. Her cheeks were pale. She was in one of those ridiculously baggy T-shirts she always slept in. Her hair was a frizzy mess, and she didn’t have even a hint of makeup on.
So she’d gone to bed, fully intending to not come here…
And then changed her mind.
He set the beer down and opened the door, a brow up as he tried to play it as casual as possible, because he didn’t want to scare her off…again. “Are you sleepwalking?”
“I wish. That would make more sense than this.” She wrung her shirt in front of her, with her keys in her hand as well. Her bottom lip was swollen, like she’d been chewing on it, and that made sense because she did that when she was nervous. “I shouldn’t be here.”
“If you want to leave, I can pretend you never knocked.”
She hesitated, lifted a foot as if she might take him up on his offer, and lowered it back down, but one step closer to him. “What’s your biggest fear?”
“Uhh…” He blinked. “Being a horrible father to Ginny.”
“Mine’s losing someone I love.” She hesitated. “Again.”
He nodded. “That’s a close second for me.”
“Where do you see yourself in ten years?” she asked, nibbling on her lip.
He laughed and rubbed his face, not sure where she was going with this, and not really in the mood to wait to find out. He’d thought her coming here meant she wanted to be with him, but instead of saying as much, she was asking him a million questions. “What are you doing, Daisy? It’s late, and I’m—”
“If I’m going to do this, I need to know this stuff. We skipped the first date, got right in bed with each other, and then skipped to like the tenth when we realized we already kind of knew each other. You’re asking me to ignore every instinct I have to run from you—to give you a chance—and for me to do that, I need to know this stuff. I need to know it all, before I decide.”
Well, she had a point.
They’d definitely skipped over the usual dating stuff. The kinds of conversations most people had on first, second, even third dates…before they saw each other naked.
“I see myself right here, with Ginny in middle school, and I’ll still be working at the Shillings Agency. Having a stable environment for Ginny is very important to me. I don’t want to jerk her around and make her lose her sense of home. You?”
“Here, still a cop. Maybe a detective instead of an officer. Maybe I’ll own a home and not have a roommate anymore. Maybe…” She licked her lips and darted a look his way. “Maybe in love, and married, with a kid or two.”
“And this man you see…this husband…” He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. “Is he possibly your partner? Because I saw the way he looks at you, and I don’t want to fuck with something that’s been years in the making. If you have feelings for him…”
She blinked. “What? God, no.”
“Steven said everyone knows you two are going to end up getting married, and that he’s in love with you, and has been for years. That once you see it, once you know, you’ll fall in love with him, too, and live happily ever after. If there’s any chance of that happening—”
“It’s a game he plays. He likes to pretend he’s got it hot for me, to throw other guys off, but he doesn’t actually want me. He’s my partner. My roommate. My friend.” She bit down on her lip. “But certainly not my future husband. I don?
??t love him like that.”
“But you do love him?” he asked slowly.
“Of course.” She held her hand out. “I put my life in his hands every day, and vice versa. Every day I’m not out there on the streets with him kills me. We have each other’s backs, and always will, and I can’t watch his when I’m stuck behind a desk.”
