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I wasn’t prepared.
I wasn’t able to hide it.
And…he saw.
Hefuckingsaw.
And…I knew, one look at the way his expression changed, that he got it.
Knew he finally got how much I hated it. How much it hurt.
Because he was immediately there, pressed to me, arms banding around my middle, my body flush against him. “Baby,” he began.
I turned my head away. Wouldn’t meet his gaze no matter how gentle his voice, how much he crouched and tried to make it so our eyes connected.
A soft curse.
“Baby,” he said again, palm sliding up my spine, fingers dipping into my hair, pressing lightly to my scalp. Tucking me against him when I wouldn’t look at him, holding me close so I couldn’t back away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t get it.”
I wouldn’t respond.
I couldn’t.
Because I might cry.
His voice was even more gentle. “I thought you thought it was funny.”
“No.” I might be desperately trying to keep my distance (something that was goingreallywell considering that I was standing in the circle of his arms), but I still had a spine. “It wasn’t funny.”
Fingers sliding from my hair, along my jaw. “No,” he agreed, “it wasn’t. I’m sorry.”
I sucked in a breath.
He kept stroking that finger along my skin. “I thought you liked bickering, liked when I teased you and you could dish it back. I wouldn’t have used it if I knew.”
I leaned back, releasing that breath, and glared up at him. “You honestly thought that someone—a woman in particular—would enjoy being called a harpy?”
A wince.
“No,” I muttered, fighting his hold. “You just thoughtIwould. Because I’m so fucking terrible.”
His brows dragged together. “Billie, baby—”
“Let me go,” I whispered.
He kept his arms around me. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Let me go,” I repeated.
He tightened his hold, didn’t shift, didn’t move away from me, and—this was something that would surprise people as well—I was tired.
I. Was. Tired.
That wasn’t the Billie Rose everyone knew, the Billie Rose everyone expected, the Billie Rose my parents wanted me to be.
And certainly not the Billie Rose this annoying man knew.
But it was the truth.
