Page 49
“It wasn’t,” I admit. “And Jessica will always be a trigger, unfortunately, but—”
“Am I? A trigger?”
I sit up straight. “Not at all. If you were, things wouldn’t have played out the way they did. You wouldn’t have been able to touch me, let alone do…other things, if you were a trigger. Where’s this coming from?” I honestly thought we wiped our slate clean last night. In fact, I thought we got rid of the damn thing altogether.
“I was watching you sleep, and I realized it was something I never apologized for. I know I did when we were kids, but then I kept fucking things up, so I figured it’d mean more to you now than it did back then.”
“I appreciate it.” I rest my hands on his chest. “But, we all did things in high school, and you can’t be responsible for what Jessica did. I thought you knew that?”
“I guess I wanted to be sure, since things have changed between us. I didn’t deserve you back then, babe. Not even as a friend, and—”
I clamp my hand over his mouth. “Stop, Thorin. You’re being too hard on yourself. And maybe you didn’t deserve me, as a friend or as anything else, but that was then. Are you worried that you don’t deserve me now? Is that what’s bothering you?”
I drop my hand, and his silence is the only answer I need. Inwardly, I sigh. What more can I do to help him let go? I can tell him he’s not the same person he was nine years ago, ten years ago, eleven years ago, until I’m blue in the face, but it won’t matter until he believes me.
“I want to be worthy of you,” he murmurs. “I want to earn your love, your trust, your forgiveness.” God, doesn’t he know he has those things already? I may not have said I love him, but what I feel is pretty damn close, and after I bared my soul, surely he would have seen that I both trust and forgive him? Obviously, hearing that he is worthy won’t be enough, so…
“Then earn those things,” I tell him. Thorin is the kind of man driven by purpose, and that’s something I understand. “Woo me, if you want. If that’s what it’s going to take for you to really just let all this stuff go.”
“You’ll give me a shot?” He sounds incredulous. Gah! Why are men so obtuse? Honestly.
“I thought that was implied after everything we spoke about, and after we had sex.”
He’s quiet again, watching me, the cogs in his head turning. Must I spell it out for him? Must I make the first move? Fine. I will.
“Thorin Decker, will you go out with me?”
There, that wasn’t so freckin hard, now was it?
“I’m supposed to ask you that.” His mouth lifts up on side, and hallelujah, the man is smiling again.
“Time’s a wastin’, bud.”
He rewards me with his I’m-a-fucking-rockstar smile, and I light up from the inside out. “Reese Hayes, will you go on a date with me?”
I wrap my arounds his neck, and pretend to think it over, tilting my head to the side. “Fine,” I sigh. “Since you asked so nicely.”
He goes for my ribs, and starts tickling. “Tease.”
I squirm in his lap, and smile. “Had to make you work for that one.”
“I’ll work for all of them,” he tells me, brushing his lips across mine. “And I’ll show you I’m a risk worth taking.”
“I’m betting on that.”
His mouth is on mine, but the moment is cut short by a shrill scream.
Thorin darts up, effectively taking me with him. “What the—”
We look at each other, and at the same time say, “Eli!”
I scramble from his arms, and dart to the bedroom. “I need pants!”
Grabbing the jeans I had on the night before, I hop down the hallway, and manage to zip up just as Thorin flings my front door open. We run to the main house, and come to an abrupt halt when Fletch drags a guy down the front steps, and throws a camera onto the gravel.
“The fuck?” The guy yells, grabbing the camera. “Do you know how much this thing is worth?” He stands, and angrily dusts himself off.
“Yeah? And do you know this is private property, dickhead?” Fletch snaps. “You can’t just walk into this house!”
