“Yes,” she argued, crossing her arms over herself even tighter, as if she wanted to shrink away. “I’m the girl guys call at two in the morning when they want to order a pizza and get their dick wet. I’m the one they call when they just got out of a two-year relationship and need to get over someone else. I’m the one on speed dial when there’s a party, and one of their single friends says hey, man, call up some hot chicks.”
“Belle,” I said, shaking my head as I reached for her. I couldn’t give her space anymore, not when she was breaking right in front of me. “That is not who you are.”
She pulled away from me at first, her glossy eyes finding the road again. She still couldn’t look at me when I finally pulled her closer, and she was stiff until I wrapped her up, pulling her head to my chest.
“That guy, he was a young, stupid kid who didn’t know what he had when he had it. If he didn’t take you home to his mom, it’s because he had issues — not you. Because trust me when I say anyone and everyone — Mom, Dad, brother, sister, or random stranger on the street — falls in love with you after just an hour of your time. And they’re lucky if they survive that long.”
Belle shook her head, but I tilted her chin until she looked at me.
“Hey, stop acting like that’s not possibly true. You’re not what that asshole said you were. He does not get to define you. Okay?”
I didn’t miss the way her eyes teared up at my words, and she inhaled a stiff breath to keep those tears at bay, shoving her head back into my chest. “Stupid football players. I hate them. All of them. Never, ever again.”
My throat ached against my next attempted swallow. How the hell am I going to break it to her now?
“I’m so sorry I said something that triggered that asshole’s words in your memory,” I whispered, rubbing her back and pushing what would be future Makoa’s problems out of my head for now. “I meant what I said. I do have a good time with you, but I promise you, it has nothing to do with the sex.”
She peered up at me then.
“Okay,” I conceded. “You are a goddess in bed. Or rather, in the kitchen,” I added with a smirk. “But that’s just an added bonus.”
Belle chuckled, and finally, she relaxed into me, her hands wrapping around my waist as she laid her head on my chest.
“I have a good time with you, too,” she said softly, and I felt her swallow against my sternum. “And if I’m being honest, it petrifies me.”
“Why?”
She laughed a little, pulling back so she could look me in the eyes. “I accepted the role Nathan gave me a long time ago, Makoa. And ever since then, I’ve had a three-date rule.”
I cocked a brow.
“Not the same was what I imagine your three-date rule is,” she clarified. “With mine, I don’t see a guy past the third date. That way, I never risk getting caught up again. I never have to worry about falling for someone and thinking he’s the one, only to be told I was never even in the running for his heart.”
I closed my eyes, shaking my head and vowing to find this Nathan motherfucker and break his teeth.
“So, was this you adhering to your rule?” I asked.
When I opened my eyes, she was staring right through me. “It was me trying to.”
The fear in her eyes killed me, because I knew it like it was my own soul. And I also knew, right then and there, that I had a new plan.
Make her fall in love with me.
Make her fall in love with me and then tell her about football. Because if I told her now, I’d lose her before I ever had the chance to have her at all.
But if we stayed on this course, if I got her to open up to me, to let me in, to lean into the possibility of what we could be together the way I was right now?
That would be it.
She wouldn’t give a damn that I was a football player, not after I proved her wrong. Not after I put this shit rocket Nathan to shame.