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Well, I guess that answers my question about whether or not I still like him.
When I don’t answer him right away, he grabs one of my hands and pulls me into the library, stopping right next to the ladder on wheels.
“Go ahead. I know you’re dying to climb it.”
I really don’t want him to see how happy this makes me, but I can’t help it. I let out an excited squeal and quickly grab onto the rungs, climbing a few of them with a huge smile on my face. Holding on tightly, I turn and look down at him over my shoulder.
“Let me guess. You want me to push you?”
Instead of answering him, I start bouncing up and down excitedly on the ladder.
He lets out a low chuckle, grabbing onto the ladder right by my feet, slowly pushing it along the shelves.
“This is the best day ever!” I shout excitedly, making the mistake of removing one of my hands from the ladder to throw it in the air.
I lose my balance and one of my feet slips off the rung. With my hands still wrapped around the edge, I cling to it tightly as I slide down, Vincent’s hands grabbing onto my hips to stop me from falling to the floor. When my feet touch the ground, I slowly turn around to face him. He’s standing so close that I have no choice but to press my back against the ladder as I look up at him.
“New rule,” he says softly, which makes me roll my eyes. “You can come in here whenever you want. But, if you still want me to help you, no more dates.”
I open my mouth to argue, but he quickly presses his palm against my mouth to quiet me.
“This is not me being overbearing. This is me refusing to share.”
Swallowing thickly behind his hand, I reach up and grab onto it, slowly pulling it away from my mouth before I do something stupid like lick his palm to see what his skin tastes like.
“Got it. Ten-four. Over and out, good buddy. But just so you know, I totally forgot about that one the other night. I would have cancelled if I remembered it. Poor Dusty.”
Oh my God. Stop talking.
Vincent’s eyes narrow and he studies my face for a few seconds, until it takes everything in me not to squirm under his stare.
“Ask me. I know it’s killing you.”
I look up at him questioningly.
“About this room. And why I was such an asshole and a jerk the other night,” he replies.
I bite my bottom lip and stare with fascination as his eyes drift down to watch what I’m doing, the beautiful brown irises growing darker the more I worry my lip. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I let out a small, uncomfortable cough.
“Um, well. I guess I’m just kind of wondering why you would keep a room like this locked. It’s amazing, Vincent. I would live in this room if I had something like this in my home.”
He takes a minute to look around at the shelves while I take that minute to stare at him. His chiseled jaw and the scruffy hair covering it makes me wonder what it would feel like to run my palm over it. Would it be soft or would it be scratchy? And what would it feel like on other parts of my body?
A full-body shiver goes through me, and I quickly steel myself when his eyes meet mine again and he lets out a deep sigh, dropping his hands from my hips as he takes a step back from me.
“It is a great room. It just reminds me too much of my past, and that just pisses me off. Which you already know. I got angry and I lost my temper because . . . it’s embarrassing. I made that rule when you moved in because I didn’t want you to know about that part of my life. About the stupid choices I made that got me to this point. About how much I fucked everything up.”
He runs one of his hands through his damp hair and I keep my mouth shut, not wanting to ruin the moment of having him finally open up to me. A few quiet, tense minutes go by before he finally speaks again.
“I wasn’t always a bouncer at Charming’s. I used to be an English teacher at Magdalene Preparatory.”
My eyes widen in shock, and it takes me a few seconds before I can speak.
“That’s the most prestigious school in the state. I wanted to go there, and I had the grades, but my dad couldn’t afford it. Even with the couple of scholarships I’d earned, it wasn’t enough. The teachers there are the best in the country. . . .” I trail off, looking at him in a whole new light.
