I wanted that, too, but I couldn’t just sweep what had just happened under the rug.
I had to fix it.
I picked her up, and sat down on the leather couch with Taylor on my lap. “Something is wrong, sweetheart. I can sense it. Talk to me.”
She scrambled off my lap, stood up, and started gathering up her clothing. “If you don’t want to fuck me, you should have just said so,” she said indignantly. “I’m not going to keep throwing myself at you. I feel kind of ridiculous.”
I watched as she marched her beautiful naked ass toward the stairway and disappeared.
Okay, what the fuck had just happened?
I got up and followed her. I got to the stairway just in time to see her turning the corner upstairs.
Oh, hell no.
I wasn’t going to just let her run away from this.
I sprinted up the stairs, and to my bedroom.
Taylor wasn’t there, but the bathroom door was closed, and the light was on, so I sat down on the bed, determined to wait for her to come out of there, even if I had to wait all damn night.
I pulled off my socks, getting ready to be comfortable while I waited, when the bathroom door flew open, and there was Taylor, looking a lot more composed than she had earlier.
She’d pulled on a pair of the thin shorts and a tank top she usually slept in while she was in the bathroom.
I watched her as she crossed the room and sat down on the bed next to me, but not close enough for me to touch her. I was okay with that if she needed her space, as long as she talked.
“I’m sorry,” she said in a remorseful tone. “I had absolutely no reason to be angry with you, and you didn’t deserve the way I acted, either. You just got home from work. Maybe you weren’t in the mood to get naked with me, and that should be perfectly okay if you weren’t. I guess my gut reaction was that maybe you’re tired of us fucking like bunnies all the time, or maybe you’re getting bored…with me.”
My gut twisted when she wouldn’t meet my gaze. “Seriously, Taylor? There is never going to be a day that I don’t want us to get naked and sweaty, but there’s more to all of this. I know it. Something is bothering you. A lot.” I paused before I continued, trying to figure out what to say. In the end, I just decided to be honest like we always were with each other. “You know, I was wrong when I said we could never be friends. We’re best friends, and even though that’s just one part of our relationship, it’s important. I can’t just fuck you and pretend that I don’t know something is bothering you. That just doesn’t work for me. Tell me what’s going on in your head. I want to help you fix it.”
She shook her head. “You can’t fix this, Hudson. It’s my issue, not yours. It isn’t you, it’s me.”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it. Your issues are my issues, too, Taylor,” I cajoled. “Tell me that if you knew something was bothering me, that you wouldn’t pry whatever problem I had out of me somehow.”
“I probably would try,” she admitted with a ghost of a smile on her face.
“You’d succeed, just like I plan on doing. I’ll be following you around until you get sick of hearing me ask you what’s wrong, and you just fucking tell me. I don’t get it. You’ve never had a problem telling me any of the really hard stuff before. As soon as you trusted me enough to talk about it, you told me. How much more time do you need to trust me enough with whatever is bothering you now?”
Son of a bitch! I knew I was losing it, but it hurt to know that no matter what I said, she just didn’t trust me enough to share something that was obviously eating her alive.
She shook her head as she said in a frustrated tone. “This isn’t about trust. It’s about me. It’s about my fear.”
“Jesus! I’d happily give my life to protect you, Taylor. Don’t you know that?”
“It’s not that kind of fear, Hudson. Oh, screw it. All we’re doing is arguing, and that’s the last thing I want. Do you really want to know what’s wrong?” She finally met my eyes.
She sat up straighter, and I could see her determination as