Bracing himself, he took a step back. “Nina, can we—?”
“Sorry!” Maya appeared out of the darkness. She looped an arm through Nina’s and tugged. “I’m stealing her. Sometimes girls just need to dance together.”
Wordlessly, Nina slipped away with Maya. When she looked back at him, her brow was furrowed, and her eyes were bright with pain.
Knox watched her until she joined a circle with Dani and a few of the townsfolk. The music had changed back to something upbeat and cheerful, and the dancers soon swallowed Nina in their midst, leaving Knox torn between relief that he’d delayed the moment of truth and guilt that he’d hurt her.
Nothing to do about it now. Nothing but fortify himself with more beer and try to find the right words to break her heart.
* * *
Nina’s room above the café was small, with only a narrow bed, a dresser, and an armchair beside the window. But the bed was soft, there was a tiny attached bathroom for her convenience, and everything was scrupulously clean.
She kicked off her boots and deposited them by the door. The rest of her things were still packed away where she’d left them earlier, and she paused only to dig out her toothbrush. She brushed her teeth, splashed water on her face, and collapsed on the bed, still clothed.
There was no air conditioning, just a lazily spinning fan on the ceiling. Nina watched it circle, wobbling just a tiny bit, until the room began to circle with it, and she squeezed her eyes shut. She wasn’t drunk, though she should have been. Just a little tipsy, and even that pleasant buzzing sensation was fading.
She toyed with a piece of lace on her borrowed outfit, still unsure why she’d let Eileen press the frilly sundress into her hands in the first place. At the time, she’d told herself that she couldn’t refuse a gift offered out of such desperate gratitude, but the truth was that she had wanted Knox to see it on her. She had wanted him to think she was pretty, wanted him to—
She had wanted him, full stop.
It didn’t matter that she knew better, or that she’d promised Maya and Dani she wouldn’t do this. It didn’t matter that she knew he’d break her heart. Hell, it didn’t even matter that he seemed determined to push her away as hard as he could.
She wouldn’t chase him. She wasn’t pathetic, and she knew how to take no for an answer. But none of that seemed to ease the longing that twisted in the pit of her stomach.
A muted knock sounded on the door, followed by the low rumble of Knox’s voice. Because of course it was him. Of course it was. “Nina? Can I come in?”
If she stayed perfectly quiet and still, would he leave? Or would he think something was wrong? “The door’s open.”
He slipped in and shut the door softly behind him. He approached the bed tentatively, the shadows playing over his guarded expression as he held up a bottle of expensive imported bourbon. “I brought a peace offering.”
She sat up and took the bottle. “I didn’t know we were at war.”
“Then consider it an apology.” Knox hooked both thumbs in his belt, his gaze fixed on a spot just over her shoulder. “I blow hot and cold. I’ve been an asshole. But you know I want you, Nina. You have to know it. You’re the only thing I’ve wanted for myself in…” A short, painful laugh. “Maybe my whole life.”
Her heart was pounding so hard it felt like her sternum might shatter. “Me, too.”
He took a cautious step closer, and his voice broke on a raw whisper. “I’m scared that when you really see me, you won’t want me, after all.”
There were no reassurances Nina could make, no promises he would hear, nothing she could say to chase away those shadows. All she could do was show him how much she needed him.
She held out her hand.
He hesitated. “Nina, I—”
“Words get in our way,” she interrupted. “Not tonight. Please.”
He stared at her hand for an endless moment, naked longing battling against some internal hesitation. The hesitation lost as he reached out and grasped her hand in his.
The bottle of bourbon rolled away, utterly forgotten, as she tugged Knox down to the bed. He stretched out over her, blocking out the rest of the world, and it felt right.
He framed her face with his hands, one thumb tracing