my arms, reaching up and crushing my mouth against his. I resisted that urge because it went against what I’d planned to say to Elliot McKenna.
I was breaking up with him . . . and I couldn’t kiss him and do that at the same time, or at least I was fairly sure I couldn’t. I wasn’t entirely certain about the rules when it came to breaking up with a boy who technically was never your boyfriend to begin with. It was new ground that I was covering, so everything was unknown.
It was a complicated mess on a good day but I was certain of one thing: in the span of the few short months that we had been casually dating, I had fallen in love with Elliot, and I didn’t want to be strung along and hurt beyond repair, so I had to cut him loose even though I didn’t want to. I had to, in order to protect myself.
I had always known that I was soft-hearted and more emotional than most people. I took things personally whether I wanted to or not. I grew attached to those I cared about very easily, and that was why Elliot, as a person, terrified me so much. I loved him. I loved him so completely that it scared me. He was someone who could break me without even trying.
We were both young and maybe it was foolish, but I could see a future with Elliot. One where I was in a stable relationship that would give me the security I needed in order to relax and enjoy my life. I desperately wanted that. I didn’t want to mess around and spend my early years jumping from guy to guy and have the future be unknown to me. I knew what I wanted and what I wanted was to be Elliot’s one and only, the woman he gave his last name to.
I had never thought it was truly possible to find the person I hoped to spend my life with so young, but I believed I had found my future in Elliot . . . and it killed me that he didn’t appear to have that kind of faith in me. If he did, he would have already asked me to be his girlfriend.
“I have to tell you something,” I said with a firm nod as I straightened my spine. “It’s important so you have to listen to me – Elliot!”
His laughter burst free as I slapped away the hand that slithered down my back and squeezed my behind.
“I love how ye say me name, sasanach.” He chuckled. “All prim and proper.”
With flaming cheeks, I thumped his chest.
“Don’t be touching the merchandise, paddy.”
“Am I not allowed to touch what belongs to me?”
A flood of pulsing heat spread from my stomach to between my thighs. My hands moved to Elliot’s growing biceps, where I gripped on to him for dear life as I pressed my legs together. I was a simple girl who didn’t need a whole lot said, or done, to feel ready to climb Elliot like a tree. It was the virgin in me, and the fact that I’d read one too many Highlander historical romance books that made me weak when a man got deliciously possessive.
Damn those Scotsmen and their bloody kilts.
“No,” I squeaked in response. “No, you’re not allowed to touch me ’cause I don’t belong to you or any man. I belong to me.”
Elliot cocked an eyebrow and I even found that sexy. It was positively mortifying what my hormones were doing to my body. I was glad no one could read my mind, because they’d be having a good laugh at me and my vagina’s expense.
“Is that so?” he mused as he pressed me against the bathroom door, pinning me with his hard body. “I wonder why that is? Care to let me know?”
Woman up, Noah. It’s now or never.
I cleared my throat and looked at his nose, because I found I didn’t have the courage to look him in the eye as I broke my own heart.
“That’s why I asked you to come here while my parents are away for the weekend. I need to tell you that I’m breaking up with you.”
For long seconds, the room was covered in a veil of silence that prompted me to look up into Elliot’s eyes. All playfulness had vanished from those ocean blues, and a flicker of what I gauged to be worry lingered. Time ticked by as