Page 12 of Meant for You

“I don’t know where to start,” she said. “I don’t know how to let you back in, how to trust you again.”

Her words cut right through me. “What do you want me to do? Tell me what I need to do, and I’ll do it. Anything, just name it.” I’d crawl over broken fucking glass to have her back in my life again.

“I need to think about it.” She glanced away, then back. “Honestly…I’d convinced myself that I’d never hear from you again, that maybe I’d see you at the ranch one day and you’d act like you didn’t know me, that I didn’t exist. I’d prepared myself for that. This…what you’re asking for, it’ll take some time to get my head around.”

I deserved that as well. “How much time?” I was pushing, but I was done being apart from her. So done.

She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Then she stood.

“You’re leaving?” I wanted to snatch her up and make her stay with me.

“I think we’ve said enough for now.”

I didn’t want her to leave. I’d rather sit there having my heart torn out repeatedly with her than be without her, or worse, with fucking Riff and his commentary on my shitty life choices.

But she headed for the door, so I followed her out, again doing my best to block her from the fucking assholes in the room looking at her.

She glanced at me over her shoulder. “I don’t need you to walk me out.”

I ignored her and held the door open. She headed across the street to her car, getting her keys ready like she was going to jump in and speed off, like she wanted to get away from me as fast as she could.

She unlocked the door and was about to pull it open, and I couldn’t control it; I grabbed her hand, stopping her.

“Dane,” she said in that soft, sweet voice I’d been dreaming of, that I’d still heard every day even though we’d not been talking. Her eyes were aimed at my throat, chin dipped, and I couldn’t stand it one more fucking second.

“Look at me, Eves.”

She shook her head.

I cupped her jaw. “Why won’t you look at me, baby girl?”

She shook her head again.

“Look at me, Everly.”

“I don’t want to,” she whispered.

I bent at the knees and, taking her chin, tilted her head up. “Fucking look at me,” I said without heat, just fucking desperation.

She started to tremble.

“Tell me why?” I pleaded.

Suddenly her head shot up, intense mahogany eyes colliding with mine, and my fucking knees nearly buckled.

“Because if I look into your eyes, my Dane’s eyes, I’ll cave. I’ll forgive you.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” I said, throat working, dry as fuck.

“Yes, because we wouldn’t be us. It’d be a lie. I’d still have that hurt deep inside, and I still wouldn’t trust you.”

Fuck yeah, that cut even deeper. The truth hurt, though, right? I knew that more than most. I stared into her eyes while I could, soaking them up like a dehydrated fucking houseplant getting a drop of water.

She didn’t move and neither did I, and the longer I looked into those gorgeous eyes, the deeper I sank into them. My breathing grew faster, and I—shit—I wanted to get closer. My gaze dipped and landed on her full pouty mouth, dark pink lips looking even darker from her biting them.

And fuck me, I realized in that moment I wanted a taste.