We Have Till Dawn - Cara Dee Page 0,61

sounds.

“I don’t understand your emotions now,” he stated.

“Relief.” I blinked, and a couple tears fell down. “Plain relief.”

I had a shot. It was official. I’d wear him down if I had to.

“Oh.” He furrowed his brow. “I’m not there yet. I fear what I’m about to tell you will make you change your mind.”

Unless he was hiding another fiancée somewhere, I wasn’t too worried.

“I’m listening.” I wiped at my cheeks and took a steadying breath. “Just…scoot closer to me, okay?”

He scooted a little closer, though not enough for us to be able to touch each other, so I extended my hand, and he scooted a bit more. It was an improvement at least—and a much-needed comfort since he looked anything but at ease. In fact, his expression was pinched with worry and weariness.

I covered his hand with mine and gave it a squeeze. “Whatever it is you gotta tell me, it can’t be that bad.”

“You don’t know that,” he responded quietly. “We can start with today. I’m not good at communicating properly at all times.”

“Who is?”

He huffed a breath. “Fine. I’m afraid I will bore you. I don’t mind going to bars every now and then, but I can’t stay very long, and I don’t enjoy nightclubs at all. I’m also picky about restaurants, I’m not flexible, sometimes I might become clingy and needy—especially where you’re concerned—and I’m positively terrified that your family won’t accept me, and I know how much you love them.” He hauled in a breath and trucked on. “Occasionally, I will avoid an issue and hope it goes away by itself. Most recently, it’s been the matter of us not having sex.”

This, I had to hear.

“When I have a lot on my mind…” he said, faltering, and he avoided eye contact more than before. Now he was almost peering toward the kitchen. It was clear he struggled with this. He was embarrassed. “I go through asexual periods sometimes.”

Oh.

“I can’t explain it very well.” He wrung his hands awkwardly in his lap. “I can still feel incredibly affectionate toward you and want to please you, but I’m starting to believe it’s because of my emotional attachment. It isn’t sex. Not in the past few days anyway. That urge…disappears. Thankfully not for long, usually—perhaps a couple weeks or so—but it happens. I’m sorry.”

Not a single thing he’d said raised any worries until those last two words. I wouldn’t have him apologizing for shit.

Summoning my balls, I crawled over to him and climbed onto his lap.

“Hey.” I kissed his forehead and decided not to force eye contact. He’d get there when he was ready, just like he had the first time we’d been in this position and I’d taken off my blindfold. “Don’t apologize for who you are, papito.”

“It’s still a nuisance.”

“Not really. It is understandable, though.” I gathered his hands in mine and kissed his knuckles. “These past two months have turned both our worlds upside down. It’d be weird if that sort of exhaustion didn’t manifest itself somehow.”

He glanced down at our joined hands, and I decided to rewind the tapes and tackle the rest of what he’d said.

“My family will adore you and show you in their special way,” I murmured. “I’ll be your translator, and I’ll give you all the heads-ups you might need. For instance, my nonna will try to force-feed you, because she thinks everyone under three hundred pounds is skinny, and you won’t be able to say no to her.”

His mouth twitched a little.

“I’ll talk to her too.” I bumped my forehead gently against his. “And let’s make one thing clear. The first and the second, maybe even the third time you and I go over to hers for dinner, we’ll both be nervous. You’ll worry about stepping on any toes and saying the wrong thing, and I’ll worry about not being able to calm you down enough. But at the end of the day, if my family sees that I’m happy, they’re happy.” What was next? Oh, the social life crap. “Now. Going out on the weekends and whatever. You’re obviously gonna meet Ruby and Chris, and I’ll be stoked whenever you come with us to a bar. But I will totally understand when you don’t feel up to it—hell, sometimes I don’t either. It’s unfair to compare how often I go out when I’m single to how I wanna spend my time with you. I’m not as social as you think.”

He cleared his throat and raised a brow, and the