Page 68 of Bend

That snaps something in me. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Pretend you’ve got me figured out.”

“Maybe I do.”

I take a step toward her again before I can help it. “No, you don’t.”

Her breath catches, but she doesn’t move.

The space between us goes electric.

“Then tell me who you are,” she says.

The question lands harder than anything else she’s said tonight.

For one dangerous second, I consider it. Consider answering honestly. Telling her that I’m the guy who carries too much and trusts too little. That everything I have, I built with people I’d bleed for, and I’ll burn the world down before I let anyone threaten them.

That I haven’t stopped thinking about her since that night at the bar, and I’m mad as hell that she turned out to be complicated instead of easy to dismiss.

Instead, I say, “I’m the guy telling you not to make this harder than it needs to be.”

Her brown eyes flick down to my mouth and back up again. It’s fast, but I catch it.

I wonder if she catches me catching it.

“Maybe you’re the one making it hard,” she says softly.

My body reacts before my mind does. Heat, and tension. A dangerous pull low in my stomach that has no business showing up in the middle of an argument.

I tilt my head. “You should stop talking like that.”

“Why?”

Because if you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to forget why I’m angry.

Because I don’t know whether I want to kiss you or throw you out of my life before you get any deeper in it, and both options feel equally possible right now.

I let out a breath. “Because I’m trying very fucking hard to remember I’m pissed at you right now.”

That does something to her expression. Not quite a smile, just a crack in the tension.

“Are you?” she asks stepping closer as she tucks her hair behind her ear.

“Yes.”

“And how is that going for you?”

I stare at her for a second, then bark out a short laugh despite myself. “Not great if I’m honest.”

That earns me the tiniest real smile I’ve seen from her since this started, and it hits me low and hard.

Goddamn. Too pretty and way to fucking easy to want.

I harden my voice before the moment can turn.

“This doesn’t mean I’m over it.”