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When I’m done shouting, my heart is racing and I’m panting from my outburst while still glaring at the frustrating man standing in front of me.
“Are you finished?” he asks in a bored voice.
“Oh, I’m not even CLOSE to being finished! Studies show an average woman will kiss fifteen men and be heartbroken twice before finding the one. I’ve had exactly one kiss in my life, and I’ve never had my heart broken. I’ve got a lot more dating to do to get some experience. I need to make out with fourteen men and let two of them break my heart. And yeah, it kind of sucks that I have to go out with douchebags the likes of Gus Tone to do this, but I don’t care! I want the fairy tale. I DESERVE THE FAIRY TALE!”
Something that almost resembles pain flashes across Vincent’s face, but it’s gone so fast, I wonder if I imagined it.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m exhausted. I spent the entire night before physically assaulting my date, listening to him talk about how much money he has and watching him suck on his teeth. I’m going to curl up on the couch, pass out, and hope I don’t have nightmares about that disgusting sound.”
As I move away from Vincent and start heading into the living room, he comes up behind me and wraps his hands around my shoulders, steering me in the direction of the hallway.
“What are you doing?” I complain, as he gives me a gentle push when I try to stop moving. “I already broke one man’s nose tonight. Let’s not make it two. Because I will—”
“Stop talking for two minutes,” he says a low voice, cutting me off as we get to the end of the hallway.
Moving around me, he turns the handle on the closed door and pushes it open, gesturing for me to go in. I roll my eyes and walk past him, coming to an abrupt halt when I get inside.
“I cleaned it up while you were on your date,” he says. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I just grabbed random shit at the store. If you don’t like any of it, I can take it back and get something else.”
I snuck a peek inside this room earlier today when he was showering, along with every other room in the house. And yes, I even tried the door across from his bedroom, and sure enough, it was locked. When I looked in here earlier, this room was a disaster. It was a hoarder’s dream, with every square inch covered in random pieces of furniture that were stacked up to the ceiling in a few places, suitcases, clothing, piles of magazines and other random odds and ends that made it impossible for me to even step inside. And now . . . oh, my God. He must have started working on this the moment I yelled at him and walked out the door for my date.
Everything has been removed except for a walnut dresser, two matching side tables on either side of the king-sized walnut sleigh bed, and a chaise lounge right in front of the far window. Now that I can see the floor, I see it’s covered in thick, plush cream carpet with fresh vacuum lines in it. When I looked in here earlier, the cream-colored walls were bare. Now, a few beautiful framed paintings of flowers in a vase and the Eiffel Tower at night are hanging up. The bed is covered in a teal bedspread with pink and yellow flowers all over it, and a huge pile of matching pillows are scattered against the headboard.
“Vincent . . . ,” I whisper, blinking back tears and sniffling at all the trouble he’s gone to just for me.
“New rule,” he mumbles. “No crying. I don’t do crying.”
I look back over my shoulder at him. He shoves his hands in the front pocket of his jeans and backs away from me, looking incredibly uncomfortable.
“This is beautiful. I don’t even know what to say. No one’s ever done something like this for me before.”
Even though I try really hard, it’s impossible for me to stop a tear from escaping and falling down my cheek.
“It’s just a fucking room,” he mutters, turning and stalking down the hall into his bedroom, slamming the door behind him.
That man is such an enigma. He annoys the hell out of me by telling me I’m not allowed to go on any more blind dates, turns around and does something so incredibly sweet it moved me to tears, and then gets ticked off when I try and thank him. He says he’s no one’s hero, but his actions prove otherwise.
I’m going to figure that man out if it’s the last thing I do.
Chapter 13: Luminous the Liar
