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I threw my hands up. “Meaning I want to be with you. In a relationship. I didn’t know that meant move in with you.”
“Yep, I need to stay. I’ll make a list of the reasons why for you,” Levi said from across the room.
“Baby, you’re mine. With me all the time. In my bed. In my fucking shower. In my lap. Mine.”
I stared up at him. “That’s not healthy.”
“No shit,” Levi called out. “I’ll add that to the list. It’s number fucking one.”
Gage grabbed my chin. “I need you.” The desperate look in his eyes made me feel helpless. “Please don’t do this to me.”
I wrapped my fingers around his wrist. “You want me with you all the time? You’ll get tired of me. I’ll be in your way.”
A soft, almost-pained smile crossed his lips, which made my heart ache. “That’s not possible. Just you. It’s always just you.”
I sighed, wanting to rub my chest to give it some relief. This man was a lot. “What about my apartment, my job?”
He shook his head. “You can’t keep that job. It’s not safe anymore. I’ve got enemies. The family has enemies. You have to stay with me.”
Just when I thought I could accept something, he threw a new obstacle in the way.
“I want to work, Gage.”
He nodded, looking slightly panicked. It wasn’t something I was accustomed to seeing.
“I’ll get you a job within the family. Trinity cooks and cleans the house. Madeline works at the stables. There will be something you can do.”
Who was Madeline, and what stables? The Hugheses’?
I felt light-headed again. Pinching my temples, I tried to figure this out. How to make this work.
“Can I have time to ease into this?” I asked. “This is picking up where we left off for you, but it’s upending my life and changing it overnight.”
He looked so hurt that I wanted to fling myself into his arms and agree to anything. But I couldn’t do that. I had to keep my sanity. One of us needed it.
“Don’t make me sleep without you.” His voice was pleading.
“Okay,” I said, trying to find a happy medium here. “How about I keep my apartment and we try me working and then staying the night with you every other night?”
He scowled. “Every night.”
“Gage,” I sighed. “I can’t just move in with you. I don’t know you that well. We’ve not spent a lot of time together. This has been the most unstable back-and-forth … whatever it’s been. We aren’t ready for that.”
“If you only knew,” Levi said from the sofa.
“I’ll stay here,” Gage said.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Levi groaned.
“Gage,” I started, but he shook his head.
“NO. That’s me compromising. I’ll let you work at the office for now. We will stay weeknights here and weekends at the house.”
“But that’s not how you date someone, Gage,” I argued. “That’s the next step. The one between dating and marriage.”
He grabbed my waist and closed the distance between us. “We aren’t fucking dating, baby. We skipped that step.”
I laughed. No kidding.
