Page 47 of When a Soul Cries

“Didn’t you just say you understood?”

“I do.”

My brows lifted. “Then why are you still talking?”

The corner of his mouth twitched. “Because both things can be true.”

I turned around fully and folded my arms. He stepped a little closer, but not close enough to crowd me.

“Your baby home. She safe. Your friend with her.” His eyes dropped briefly toward my stomach before coming back to mine. “You hungry. I’m hungry. There’s a spot five minutes away.”

I studied his face. He wasn’t pushing the way men usually pushed. There was no attitude behind it. No *why you acting like that?* No trying to make me feel guilty for saying no. He just looked annoyingly sure that he could convince me.

“You don’t give up easy, do you?”

Rome’s mouth curved slightly, but he didn’t answer right away. He just stood there looking at me, his hands buried in his pockets like he wasn’t in any rush to convince me of shit. After a second, his tongue slid slowly across his bottom lip.

“Not when I want something.”

Something about the way he said it made me straighten a little. His voice had dropped just enough for me to notice, and the playful look he’d been wearing wasn’t completely gone, but it wasn’t the same either. His eyes stayed on mine.

I hated that I liked it.

I folded my arms tighter across my chest, partly because I was trying to stand my ground and partly because I suddenly didn’t know what the hell to do with my hands. “What exactly you want, Rome?”

His eyebrows lifted slightly. For the first time since he’d started bothering me, he paused. His eyes moved over my face, slow enough that I noticed, before settling back on mine. Then he took one small step closer—not enough to invade my space, but enough that I caught the scent of his cologne.

“Right now?”

I raised an eyebrow, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing that he’d made me nervous. “Right now.”

Rome stared at me for another second. That cocky little smile came back, but this time it was softer. “To sit across from you without a register between us.”

I wasn’t expecting that. My stomach did a stupid little flip before I could stop it, and I immediately looked away, pretending to search the parking lot for absolutely nothing.

This man was trouble. I could feel it.

“One hour,” he said.

I looked back at him. “No.”

“Forty-five minutes.”

A laugh escaped me. “You going backwards.”

“Trying to work with you.”

I shook my head, but I was smiling now. “Somewhere close?”

“Five minutes.”

“I drive my own car.”

Rome’s eyebrows lifted as a grin spread across his face. “I wasn’t finna kidnap you, Sol.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You don’t know what you was finna do.”

He laughed, shaking his head as he looked away from me.