“There is no joke, baby. I’m serious. I like you,” I repeated gently. She snorted again.
“Yeah, okay.” I’d never heard sarcasm from her before. “I like you.” She mimicked the depth of my voice. And instead of it turning me off or pissing me off, I found I liked it.
A lot. Oh yeah, I was definitely fucked when it came to Sadie Flores.
Without knowing it, Sadie was showing me a side of herself she didn’t show anyone. I’d seen how she behaved with friends or coworkers. She was always sweet and kind and funny. The attitude was new and felt like a window into a part of her she didn’t share freely.
“I’m serious,” I answered.
“Right.” She laughed, but that laughter died when I stepped closer, and her eyes widened. “What are you doing?”
I didn’t respond. I simply closed the space between us, caging her body against the elevator wall. Like this, if we stopped at any floor, she would be shielded by my body from view.
“You don’t feel this?” I asked, my voice thick and scratchy.
“Wh-what?” She breathed softly. Her eyes widened as she stared up at me.
“Because I refuse to believe that you don’t feel what I do,” I kept sharing, baring my fucking soul to her.
“Well… umm… rejection is good for the soul. Keeps you grounded,” she sassed softly. Her hand rested on my chest, leaving a trail of heat and want zipping and zapping throughout my body. I wasn’t sure if she was even aware of the fact she was touching me.
“Baby, you want me to be okay with you rejecting me, you gotta stop being so fucking cute.”
“Cute?” she asked.
“Adorable. Sexy. Gorgeous beyond belief,” I laid out.
“You really… you really think that?” She looked at me slightly differently. One of my hands dropped from the wall to tangle our fingers together before bringing it up between us. Unable to stop myself, I kissed each of her delicate knuckles.
“First time I looked at you,”—I kept kissing them lightly—“I knew I had to get to know you.”
“Today? When we went down to the laundry room?” I grunted, not bothering to bring up that wasn’t the first time I’d laid eyes on her. I might be moving too fast, but I wasn’t stupid. Confessing to stalking wouldn’t help me get the girl. It would get me arrested.
“I had to get to know you, and when I saw you earlier today, downstairs, it took all my willpower not to run after you when you ran away.”
“I didn’t run away.” Her whispered argument made my lips twitch. I shot her a look that made her bite down on her bottom lip before she sighed. “Okay, maybe I did run away. I just… got nervous.”
“I make you nervous, little bird?”
“You’re too damn hot for your own good,” she muttered, and even though I felt like jumping and pumping my first up in the air like in some kind of old school Mentos commercial, I managed to stay grounded, never letting my eyes move from hers.
“You think I’m hot?” Physical attraction was important in a long-lasting relationship.
“I probably shouldn’t have said that, huh? Probably made your ego grow a couple times.”
“Maybe not just my ego.” The stupid immature words tumbled out my mouth without thinking. The atmosphere in the elevator turned stock still for a moment before she started to laugh and lean into me. The laughter quickly died down and she stroked my chest.
“I kept thinking about you today, too,” she confessed, and I felt a tidal wave of relief wash through me.
“Did you?” She nodded shyly. I felt like I’d grown a whole goddamn foot. I felt like a giant. A man among men.
“Will you still let me walk you to your room?” I had to feign knowing exactly where she lived.
“Why do I have a feeling you’d follow me like a lost puppy if I told you no?” I smiled at her, neither denying nor confirming, because she hit it out of the park with that guess.
“Please?” I asked genuinely.
Then, because all I could see, all I could feel and smell was her, I leaned closer and closer, until our foreheads touched. Fuck me, she was so much smaller than me. Delicate and soft. My little bird. Everything inside of me wanted to do nothing more than use my body to shield her from anything in the world that might be able to hurt her. Overprotectiveness like I’d never felt overrode me. With one hand still holding hers, the other lifted from the wall and stroked the side of her face.
