My eyes followed her finger that was pointing to a slim iron staircase.
“You don’t have to get me up there,” she insisted. “I can do it. You can go home.”
She attempted to step away from me and stumbled, but I caught her.
“Nice try,” I said, wrapping my arms around her. We made it to the base of the stairs that was nearly obscured by beds of shrubs. “All right, we’re going to take this nice and slow.”
She faced me, her arms circling around my neck, and my heart leapt into my throat. God, she was beautiful. But she was also really,reallydrunk.
“You’re pretty,” she said. “Like, unnaturally pretty. Are you an alien?”
I laughed. “I don’t think so?”
She moved closer, so we were almost nose to nose, and heat rushed up my neck despite the chill of the night air.
“Were you sent here to suck my blood?” she asked.
“I think you’ve got your aliens and vampires mixed up.”
A piece of hair fell in her face as she studied me, and without thinking, I reached to tuck it behind her ear.
She held my gaze, and the moment swelled until all I could see was her.
Her soft hands found my face, and my lids drifted closed, but my heart was split wide open. When I opened my eyes again, she was leaning in with parted lips.
“McKenzie,” I whispered. “No.”
My body wasscreamingyes, but I couldn’t. Not anymore.
“You know I think you’re hot,” she said, her words slurring together impatiently. “Isn’t this what you do? Isn’t this, like,your thing?”
The blood drained from my face. “What do you mean?”
She huffed out a breath. “I hear you’ve got a lot of notches on your belt, dude. So, what’s another one?”
My jaw clenched. “That’s not…That’s not who I am anymore.”
“Oh. I see.” Her voice was cloaked in bitterness. “I’m not notch-worthy. Not hot enough for the rock star.”
“That’s not it,” I said. “Atall. You’re…gorgeous. It’s just…I’ve changed. I don’t want to be that guy.”
“What guy?” she asked, not meeting my gaze.
“The one who takes advantage of a situation.”
“You’re not taking advantage of me when I’m throwing myself at you.” She slid her hands down my chest. “I don’t get it. Why don’t you want me?”
Ididwant her. But not like this.
“I…I can’t, McKenzie.”
Her pretty face fell, and she hung her head. “All I wanted was to forget.”
“Forget?”Forget what?
She buried her face in her hands. “Why don’t you just tell me I’m not good enough to fuck and put me out of my misery?”
“Because that’s not the truth,” I said.
