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“Are you going to hang up your clothes or live out of your suitcase?”
I heard Verity clear her throat before saying, “I was going to live out of my suitcase, but…”
I looked over at her. “But…?”
“Well, I just wasn’t expecting the closet to have hangers,” she answered sheepishly. “We probably really do owe Marilyn and her family an apology.”
That got a grin out of me. “Well, I don’t need a closet, so all the hangers are yours.”
I opened my suitcase to pull out all my toiletries, which was really all that I needed to do. I hadn’t been lying or trying to get into Verity’s good graces by offering her up the closet. I was a guy, so I didn’t give a shit about wrinkles. Plus, we were in the middle of the woods; who was here for us to impress?
“Saint?”
I looked over at Verity. “Yeah?”
“The bed looks big enough for us both,” she stated quietly, and it took everything in me not to pump my fucking fist.
Still, I was on a mission here, and it wasn’t to make this girl feel uncomfortable or obligated. “The couch-”
“You’re what? Six-foot-one-”
“Two.”
“Six-foot-two,” she corrected. “As nice as that couch might look, there’s no way that it’ll hold your frame comfortably. The floor is also not an option. At least, not for an entire week. I mean, I could always take the couch…” She let out a soft sigh. “But…but we’re adults, right?”
I wanted to argue with her that we weren’t adults. I wanted to confess to her that I was in love with her. I wanted to pour my heart out and admit that two years later, she was still all that I could think about. I didn’t want her offer to revolve around kindness. I wanted her to want me in her goddamn bed.
Still, I couldn’t say all that.
“We are,” I agreed. “But I’d still rather sleep on the couch or the floor than make you uncomfortable, Verity. Even though you’re not blaming me for this mess and are doing your best to be a good sport about what Lulee did, I still know how you feel about me.”
Her eyes fell, and I bit out a low curse. Even though it was the truth, I wasn’t trying to make her feel bad about it. If she still felt like that about me, that wasn’t her fault. Our emotions were our emotions, and it was shitty to blame a person for what they felt or didn’t feel. This was my last chance to get Verity to forgive the way that I’d handled things that night, and there was a difference between being persistent and making a woman feel uncomfortable.
I walked around the bed, and once I was standing in front of her, I reached out, placed my fingers underneath her chin, then lifted her face to look at me. “Hey, I’m not trying to make you feel bad, Verity. That wasn’t a dig.”
Her dark blue eyes were wide as she stared up at me, and I wanted nothing more in the world than to kiss this girl. I wanted to take her in my arms and devour the fuck out of her. I wanted to know what she tasted like, what she sounded like, what she felt like, and what she looked like when she surrendered to a man. I wanted to experience all of her, but I knew that I’d be taking advantage of her if I did that right now. No matter the brave face, I knew that she still had to sort through her feelings of what Lulee had pulled on her, and nothing was lower than taking advantage of a vulnerable woman.
“I’m sorry-”
“Baby, you have nothing to be sorry about,” I said as my thumb ran across her jaw. “No matter what happens this weekend, don’t forget that you didn’t do anything wrong. You have absolutelynothingto apologize for.”
The front door swung open with flair. “Oh, my damn God,” Lulee cried out. “These rooms are fucking insane.”
I immediately stepped back from Verity, and I watched as she grinned at Lulee, our moment over. Hell, I wasn’t even sure if it’d been a moment. My hand cupping Verity’s face was hardly life-defining. At least, not for her.
“Right?” Verity agreed, walking to meet Lulee in the sitting room. “The bathrooms are insane.”
“I’m never going to leave here,” Lulee vowed. “The jacuzzi tub comes with its own goddamn bubble bath and freakin’ self-cleans.”
“Are you for real?” Verity asked in awe.
Just then, Cree walked in. “I need a smoke. How about you?”
My one bad habit, but one that I’d been trying to quit. However, the drive over had been a rough fucking one. “Yeah, man,” I replied. “I could use one.”
Chapter 10
Verity~
