at Tilly and then me. “Boyfriend?”
“Aye,” Tilly confirms, and I swear her Scottish accent gets thicker with her anger. “I don’t know the translation in Italian, but I’ll look it up and send it to you on a nice postcard of the two of us. Bye now.” Tilly shuts the door in Bria’s face and turns to me.
My eyes are wide as I say, “That was really—”
“You just give keys to these random women you date for your two little months?” Her tone is harsh as she crosses her arms in front of her.
“Are you jealous, Tilly Logan?” I can’t help but smirk.
“Don’t avoid the question,” she snaps. “Why would she have your key if it was as casual as you said it always was with your women?”
“Bria was different.”
“Different how?”
I exhale and rake my hand through my hair. “She’s from Italy too. There were a lot of Italians in our neighbourhood, so our families became friends. We didn’t try the dating thing until just this past year.”
Tilly nods slowly and gazes back at me with a guarded look. “Did you love her?”
I huff out a noise. “You know I didn’t.”
“You’ve known her for ages, and she had a key to your flat.” She brushes her red hair back and narrows her eyes at me.
“Because she watered my plants when I travelled with the team a few months ago.”
“Your precious basil couldn’t survive a weekend without you?” She rolls her eyes and glowers at me like a sullen teenager. It’s really fucking sexy.
Because the truth is, I want Tilly to be jealous. I want her to feel the pain that I felt Saturday. It’s the pain two people feel when they have strong feelings for each other but don’t fucking own it yet.
I stalk towards her and feel a heaviness descend between us as I press my hands to the door around her head, caging her in so she can’t run from this moment. “Did you mean what you said to her?”
“Don’t change the subject,” she hisses, her blue eyes wide on mine. “Did you see how giant her breasts were? Hell, I would have fallen in love with her just for those. They looked like giant water balloons. How can someone that gorgeous go to law school? My God, I bet your mum is heartbroken you two haven’t mended fences yet.”
I stare affectionately down at her. “Are you done yet?”
“No.” Tilly huffs, her lip jutting out into a pout. “She seems perfect.”
“She’s not you.” I drop my hands to her hips and pull her towards me, dipping my lips to kiss her adorable twitching nose. “And in case you didn’t know, sono pazzo di te.”
Her hands slink up around my neck. “What does that mean?”
I move my lips to the shell of her ear and whisper, “I’m crazy about you.”
She expels a little sigh and slides her fingers through my hair. “Probably because I’m not too posh to wear vibrating knickers at a football game.”
My lips smile on her neck, and I pull back to hit her with a serious look. “I’m going to choose to ignore that snide remark about yourself because I really liked the fact that you called me your boyfriend earlier.”
Her nose wrinkles adorably. “Well, she was trying to spray her scent all over you.”
“So, you didn’t mean it?” I tilt my head curiously, my body tensing in preparation because if there’s one thing I know about Tilly, it’s that I never know anything.
“Oh, I meant it.” She stares at my chest, her fingers toying with my strands as her brows furrow. “I was going to talk to you about it tonight, but Bria stole my thunder.”
Warmth radiates through my entire body. “Bria stole nothing.” I press my forehead to hers. “I’ve been yours for quite some time now.”
A small smile lights up her face as she inhales my words like she’s trying to trap them in her chest. Her blue eyes pin me with a meaningful look. “Sorry it took me so long to get here.”
“It’s okay.”
She rubs her lips together thoughtfully. “It’s just that I’ve been on my own for so long that giving myself to someone like this feels scary. Like I could lose control.”
“You’re not going to lose control.” I tilt her chin up, forcing her blue eyes to look into mine. “Giving yourself to someone just means you have support when you need it.”
Her brows lift. “I do pretty good on my own, in case you didn’t know.”
“Oh, trust me,