a hand that I reluctantly declined because you were drunk. Exactly how drunk were you if you don’t remember those conversations?”
“Actually, I can’t believe I had any conversation with you I’m so pissed you up and left without a word for over six months!”
“Great,” Verek says, scrubbing his hands over his face. “We’ve got to go through this again? I thought you were over that!”
“Are you trying to pull a fast one on me? There’s no way in hell I was over it.”
“Drunk you was definitely over it. You invited me to sleep in your bed in front of half the club and then begged to shower with me.”
“I did not!”
“You did.”
“So, how did you convince me to forgive you? Even drunk I wouldn’t have just forgotten how angry I am!”
“You sort of softened when I told you I hadn’t been with anyone else. That I didn’t want to bring anyone else home but you.”
As if his words are magic, tension leaves my body and my limbs grow limp, softening just as he predicted, just like I had dreamed. Or I guess it was an actual memory of earlier tonight.
Still, I haven’t completely forgiven him, even if I have the sudden urge to lick every inch of his bare, sexy chest and abs. “Why didn’t you call or text or send a smoke signal, anything for six freaking months, Verek? And don’t try to tell me it was because Roman told you not to! Even if that was true, you’re not the type of man to sit back and obey orders as you’ve already proven.”
Sighing heavily, he gently grabs a strand of my hair, careful not to touch my face, and twirls the curl around his finger. “Have you been avoiding Paul for the last six months?” Verek asks out of the blue.
“W-what does that have to do with anything?” I huff.
“Just answer the question, sweetheart.”
Again, I melt faster than chocolate on a hot southern day when he calls me sweetheart. It’s embarrassing how easily he can affect me with just a few words, and how I already want to forgive him even though I shouldn’t.
“Fine,” I reply. “Paul still calls me every day without fail. But, um, I haven’t answered much since we went on that trip.” By trip Verek knows I mean killing spree. Paul has no clue just how different I am now from the woman he used to know. There are so many things I can’t tell him, like what Verek did to those other men while I stood nearby, or what those men did to me in the van and storage facility.
“And why do you avoid his call?” Verek asks softly, still twirling my hair around his finger. “Is it because you don’t care about him?”
I start to deny that I still have any feelings left for the man I was supposed to marry but can’t lie to Verek. He knows all of my truths, even the ugliest ones. “It doesn’t matter if I still love him. He should just give up and move on. I’m sure he will eventually. He’ll be better off finding someone he can have a normal life with.”
“There you go,” he says simply.
“What do you mean?” I ask in confusion.
“That’s pretty much your answer for why I didn’t call you.”
“What?” I mutter as I play back the last few minutes of our conversation and try and imagine it coming out of Verek’s mouth instead of my own. Jesus. “You wanted me to give up on you and move on?” I say in disbelief as I scramble to my feet. “Then why are you back, Verek? Why didn’t you just stay away and wait it out a little longer?” I shout at him.
I start to storm off, to take Lola out or go to my bedroom and slam the door to let out some of my aggression when Verek grabs my hand to stop me. He clasps my fingers loosely in his so that I could still pull away if I wanted to. When I don’t, he lifts my knuckles to his lips and kisses each one slowly and sweetly yet still somehow erotically when his tongue sweeps over my skin four separate times.
“I didn’t want you to move on,” he says, his bluish-gray eyes looking up to meet mine after the melting process is complete and I’m completely liquified inside and out thanks to his irresistible charm. “I just hoped that you would have by now,” he remarks, still holding