Page 37 of Yours, Finally

Her eyes whipped to mine. "Do you really want to know?"

I nodded. "Small talk, right? I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know. You scoffed there for a second, which surprised me."

"It wasn't smut." She bit her lip. "Not this section. But he was doing something extremely cute and those scenes just…"

I started a few curls with both arms. She shrugged and lay fully back on the floor, legs to me.

She sighed. "They make me want to giggle and kick my feet."

She pulled a knee up and to the side, twisting and stretching her lower back. Also giving me a nice view of her ass.

"What did he do? The guy in your book. What's his name?"

"Earlier in the book, she made a casual comment that she wanted a guy to do something special for her and, when he pressed her for an example, she said it could be something as simple as a bubble bath after a hard day of work. So what does he do, many chapters later?"

I smirked. "He drew her a bath after a long day of work."

"Not only that." She did the same motion as before, but with her other leg. "He put essential oils and salts in the bath, rose petals, of course, and her favorite white wine in a large glass. He put on music she liked— and all of this while he made her dinner."

The muscles on my arms burned with the weight of the barbell, but I kept at it. "Is that what you want? Someone to do those things for you?"

"Someone to pay attention." She let her leg come to the floor again, and put her hands on her belly. Like she might try for a nap. But her eyes were wistful and on the ceiling. "Someone who knows me and loves me and wants to be with me, for me. Someone I can love just like that, back."

That could be me. In many ways, that was me, already. I wanted to be that person for Vi. Instead, all I was was jealous of a fictional character.

"What's his name? The guy in your book." Green tinted the words, deep and growly in my tone.

Her laugh surprised me.

"No." She sat up and crossed her legs again. "I mean, it's Eddie."

I squinted at her. "Suspicious. What's the name of the book?"

"Why? Are you going to read it?"

I took a break and left the barbell on the floor. "Sure. I've been curious about your books."

"I'll text it to you later."

"You don't know the name of the book?"

She shrugged and got up. "I read so many, the title is the least of my concerns."

She took her bags and aimed for the showers. My eyes narrowed. The way she moved was a little too casual— she hid something.

A flare went off in my belly. Her avoidance challenged me. Some ancestral instinct clicked in, where chasing the truth was all that I cared about.

I blocked her path and cocked my head. "Too suspicious, Vi. Even if you don't remember the book title, you have to remember the guy's name. You're hearing it every other paragraph. And I don't buyEddiefor a second."

"I don't want to tell you, okay?" She tried to walk around me.

"Why?" I asked. "What is it about the name that you want to keep secret?"

She shook her head.

My nostrils flared. "I could steal your phone— right now. But I would rather you told me."

"Would you wrestle me for it? Is this how you break?" Heat shone in her eyes. "How badly do you want it?"