after I’d placed her bags down. “This place belongs to your family?”
“To me,” I said, watching her face. Her neck was tinged red. It seemed like she had a lot to say to me, but she refused. Her temper was creeping up her neck, no place to go, since she refused to say what was really on her mind. “It belonged to my grandparents before.”
“Where will I sleep?”
I nodded toward the main bedroom. “With me.”
“No,” she said, going to pick up her bag, but I put out a hand to stop her. She let it fall with a clang to the floor. “I’m only holding up my end of the deal. I eat dinner with you. That’s it, Kelly.”
“You don’t eat,” I said.
“I do.”
She looked as scrawny as hell. I looked as tired as the devil himself after he’d tried to convert a hardheaded woman. Our internal wars were finally coming through the physical.
What the fuck were we doing?
What the fuck was I doing?
How did I even get here? Caring whether or not this woman ate with me. Caring whether or not this woman fucked me.
I cared because all of a sudden, she felt vital to me. Like a saving grace with heavenly eyes and a wicked tongue that had a dangerous power over me. Her presence softened my guard, like a lullaby, but her backbone, her good bones, made me trust.
I trusted her.
Completely.
Even though she fucking hated the thought of me at present.
I trusted this woman.
What the fuck have I done to myself?
Bad bones, no heart, she still wanted me as is. She hated that she’d accepted me. She hated that she loved me without expectations. She loved me regardless of the things she felt I did wrong.
Her love had her hate pinned down, on its knees, making it scream out in anger before it forgave and then begged for mercy.
She loves me.
I’d stolen her heart, not truly understanding the consequences of actually claiming a heart like hers.
Love was like death in that way. We didn’t get to decide.
The realization sent a shock to my chest and jolted me out of my thoughts. I blinked, realizing how hard I’d been staring at her. I had to stop myself from doing it again, from allowing her to completely consume me.
“Kelly,” she said, snapping at me. The heat rose from her neck, staining her cheeks. “The look on your face.”
“You can’t read my face,” I said, though I knew she had. How fucking dangerous—not even my old man could read my face. My twin. He was the only one.
She narrowed her eyes, pointing at mine, moving her finger from left to right. “I did. And I don’t like what I felt after.” Then she shook the digit at me, like I was being a naughty fucker.
“Enlighten the lost.”
“You realized something.”
“If I did?”
She put a hand to her neck, probably to cool the burn. “I’m mature enough to admit that I know what this means, but I refuse to talk about it. Because this—” she motioned between us “—is what it is. I thought maybe it had a chance to go somewhere, but I was wrong. So fucking wrong.”
I pointed behind her, toward the main room. “Your room.”
“I’m not sleeping with you.”
“I’m going to take the other room.”
She stood there for a minute, staring at me, waiting, so I took her suitcase and mine, moving past her, leaving hers by the bedroom door.
“Be ready by eight,” I said. “Dinner.”
“I’m tired,” she said.
“I’ll wait.”
She was ready by eight sharp.
I doubted she was hungry, only trying to prove me wrong if I’d assumed she’d make me wait until the wee hours of the morning to eat dinner.
She stared at me and I stared at her.
She was wearing all black, and with the color of her hair, she reminded me of a fire in the middle of the night. And those heavenly blue eyes, my heaven, were tinged with red.
“No matter how much you look at me like that, I won’t be swayed on this, Kelly.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her wedding ring catching the light for a brief second. She used her pointer finger to wipe at the corner of her eye. Then she looked at me again. “Such a waste.”
“Me,” I said.
“No.” She shook her head. “What’s between us—the hope that it could grow. I accept you. This. For what it is. Because believe it or not, for a time, it felt perfect. How it was supposed to