Page 147 of Someone Like Me
“Iwillloveyouforever,”I vow around a mouthful of awesome.
Evie giggles as she takes a bite and cheese stretches from her slice. “You’re so easy to please.”
I grunt in agreement as I close my mouth around the next bite. What else do I need other than what I have right here?
Evie gives me a rueful smile. “It’s refreshing.” She says this almost under her breath, but I don’t miss her meaning.
I swallow and watch her more closely. “Tough day with your family?”
She shrugs and tilts her head from side to side. “No more than usual.”
I grunt again, but this time it’s not because the pizza is so damn good, though it is. “Did they hassle you about me?”
It’s an issue. And I know it bothers her. It bothers me too, but I’m caught. The Lalondes could hate me for the rest of their lives, and I wouldn’t go anywhere.
Evie picks up another slice. “For the most part, it was about work.” She sends me a grim smile. “And going back to school.”
Then she watches me for a while, seems to debate something and sits up straight, looking decisive.
“I hate dishonesty. Even lies of omission,” she says, and I go still, already knowing I won’t like what she’s about to say. Then Evie wrinkles her nose. “Drake was there.”
At first my stomach pitches. “At lunch?”
A shocked laugh bursts from her. “No, oh God, no.” She leans in and grips my knee with the easy affection that I’ve come to rely on as much as blood in my veins. “At the yoga studio. He tried to schmooze Mom and Tori.”
The fuckwad.
Evie rolls her eyes. “He asked me out in front of them, and when I told him I was seeing someone, he guessed it was you and made a big stink.”
My eyes become slits. I can’t touch him, but I want to kill him. Evie doesn’t miss any of this.
She squeezes my knee again. “I’m sorry if that upsets you, but I couldn’t keep it from you.” The soft sincerity in her eyes holds mine. “That would dishonor who you are to me.”
And with that, the urge to commit murder one disappears. Fuckwads will always be fuckwads. This one won’t have Evie. She’s mine.
All I really need to worry about is a worthy man stepping into her path. And if she can be honest, so can I.
“Is it wrong of me to hope that the only men who ever hit on you are cock-faced douchebags?” I say this right as she’s taking another bite of pizza. Her eyes bug, she chokes, and she’s caught between laughing and coughing for the next minute and a half. I pat her on the back, but it only makes her laugh harder.
When she catches her breath, Evie shakes her head at me. “You’re terrible.”
I quirk a grin. “Why? Because I saidcock-faced douchebagor because I hope that’s my only competition.”
Her left brow becomes a sharp peak. “Both.” She picks up her abandoned pizza slice and takes a hearty bite. “But I love you anyway,” she says around a mouthful.
I open my mouth to tell her the same, but she raises a hand to stop me.
“You,”she stresses. “No one else.”
Not touching her isn’t an option. She’s wearing a dark orange blouse with a drooping bow at the neckline, and I reach over and tug the bow open. I drag my gaze to hers and find amusement with just a hint of shyness.
But nothing that tells me I should stop.
The bow was hiding two small buttons at her collar. I shift my body toward her, knees zippering with hers. With my left hand, I palm her thigh, and with the right, I attend to those buttons. When her collar falls open, I meet her eyes again.
Her smile is bright now. She drops her pizza crust into the box and brushes her fingers with the napkin before going still and watching me again.
I peel back her collar, lean in, and press my lips to the delicate dip at the base of her throat. She tastes warm and sweet with just a zing of salt I find when I let my tongue trace the groove. The moment I do, her breath catches, and the next thing I know, her hand is at the back of my neck, fingers rooting into my hair.
