Page 42 of Blitz

She snorts. “Right.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. I’m tired.”

“No, Mason. Tell me.”

She rolls away, her back to me. She curls up into a little ball. “I don’t want to talk about this right now.”

“Well, I do.”

“Well, we can’t always get what we want.”

I have no idea where this sudden coldness is coming from. I run my hand over her arm and she flinches, pulling away from me.

“Mason.”

“Go to sleep, Tucker.”

“I can’t. Not if you’re upset with me. I don’t know what just happened.”

She whirls around to face me. “Really? Never, not once did you hook up with another girl?”

My throat feels tight. “I told you. I’ve only slept with one other woman. It was right after… after… after it—and it was awful. I felt miserable after. I didn’t go to parties. I didn’t hang out. I was that guy who stayed in every Saturday night and played video games alone in my dorm room, because I was so numb I didn’t know how to function. And then by the time I figured out how to live my life again, it was ingrained as habit. I like staying in. I don’t like parties. They’re loud and the music is shitty and I never know what to say to people when I don’t want to drink. So I hang out with my roommates. They’re good guys. And after a football game, I’m usually too tired and bruised to want to do anything.”

I take a deep breath. She’s still looking at me with that hard expression on her face.

“So, no, I don’t hook up. I don’t go out trawling for easy pussy. I’ve been in love with you since I was fourteen, Mason. That doesn’t just go away. You broke something deep within me. It doesn’t just get fixed in the blink of an eye. I’m not magically healed. It’s going to take work. We’re both going to have to put in the work to get back to where we were. But, baby, I believe we can do it. We can get there again.”

Her eyes are bright. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“I’m sorry I snapped. I’m just—I—“ She hugs her chest. “It’s been an emotional twenty-four hours. I believe you. I want to be with you. The past is the past. We have to move forward. We can’t keep looking back.”

“I want you, Mason, as much as you’ll give me.” I reach out my hand and I’m gratified when she takes it. “I don’t want to casually date. I don’t want to hook up. I want to be with you. This is the real thing, sunshine. No half measures.”

She unwinds. “No half measures.”

I brush my thumb across her cheek, and she leans into the contact.

“I freaked,” she admits, and I chuckle out a breath of laughter.

“I can tell.”

“You’re right, we should talk,” she says. “Not right now. Not tonight. But soon. We should make sure we’re on the same page with where this is heading.”

“Agreed.”

I meet her for a soft, sweet kiss. I pour all of my emotion into it. Her arms wind around my neck, pulling me close.

“Let’s get some sleep, Princess,” I finally tell her. I brush some loose hair back into her protective braid. “It’s been a long day.”

She settles in my arms. She lets me curl around her, my arm around her waist. Our legs tangle in the sheets.

“I do love you, King,” she says as I turn out the lights. “I know sometimes I get scared, but I—”

“I know. I do, too.” I run my hand over her arm, and she sighs.