He sighed. “Do you think I’m that shallow? That I’m just an asshole?”
“No.” She blinked, gaze darting away. “I’m assuming again. Turns out I’m really good at it.”
The blonde with big boobs can’t make me happy, he thought, but didn’t say. This wasn’t about Jazz, or any of the girls he’d been with, really. It wasn’t about her ex. It was about fear, plain and simple, two-sided. Which was worse? Rocking along at a sustainable level of misery? Or reaching out for something like joy only to lose it, and go crashing into despair?
For his part, rocking along hadn’t gotten him anywhere in the past few years.
“Why did you come?” he asked, as gently as he could. “What do you want?”
She turned back to him, eyes glittering in the sunlight, lip caught between her teeth. “I wanted to apologize for hurting you. And to explain why I said no. And to see if…” She took a big breath that lifted her chest, and let it out in a rush. “See if maybe it wasn’t too late to say yes after all.”
“To say yes?”
“I want to go out with you. Yes. If you’re still interested.”
“Oh.” It was difficult to take his next breath. “Okay.”
They stood squared off from one another, and Carter realized this was a first. In high school and college, girls had always been quick to press up into his personal space. A hand on his arm, an arm around his waist; lots of lash-batting and chest-displaying. Jazz had all but fallen into his lap the first time she’d ever come onto him, and then kept doing it, dressed and undressed.
But Leah stood her ground, hands clasped together on her purse strap. Waiting for him to make the first move – no, he realized, correcting himself. She was challenging him, in her own, small way.If you want me come and get me. She wouldn’t be a sighing, swooning damsel. She’d laid all her doubts and presumptions at his feet just now, and he would need to gather them up, throw them over his shoulder, and prove her wrong.
If he could undertake an interrogation with nothing but prospects and half-cocked lunatics for backup, he could do this. Hewantedto do this, suddenly, quite badly. Wanted to prove himself to her.
It struck him like a lightning bolt that he’d never had to do so before. No woman had ever demanded anything of him.
He actually relished the novelty of a challenge.
“Okay,” he said again, surer, and closed the distance between them with two long strides.
She reacted, he saw; a tightening of her whole body, a little flex of her knees; her eyes widened as his shadow fell over her. He heard the low, quick intake of breath, and imagined he saw the flicker of her pulse in the hollow of her throat.
He had doubts about just about everything lately, but he didn’t doubt that he was a damn good kisser these days.
He captured her face gently with one hand, and she froze – and then leaned into it, fractionally, eyelashes fluttering.
“Damn,” she murmured.
“What?”
“I’m already a total cliché. If I swoon, please drop me on my ass.”
That startled a laugh out of him, and she grinned in response, eyes crinkled with delight. It was easy as anything, then, to duck down, and press his lips, quick and soft, to hers. He could feel the shape of her smile, the warmth of it, and though he immediately wanted more – a bad habit from a few years of total, unrestrained passion – he pulled back, a laugh still caught in the back of his throat. “Okay?”
She nodded, expression suffused with warmth, her cheeks still so pink. “Definitely okay.”
“Carter!” Mercy called. The sound of his real name – and the look on Mercy’s face when he glanced over – put him on high alert immediately. His fingers tightened on reflex at Leah’s nape, and he nearly pulled her into his chest, wanting to shelter her.
“What?”
“Fox called,” he said, voice grim. “There’s another one.”
That could have meant a number of things, none of them good, but he guessed Mercy didn’t want to shout it for all the world to hear – or to worry Leah with it.
He nodded. “Coming.” He turned back to Leah, already regretting having to let go.
She was holding up her phone, offering it to him. “Gimme your number, and I’ll text you. We’ll talk later.”
He was flooded with a surge of warmth. She wasn’t a civilian, she wasn’t going to demand that he stay here, or tell her what was going on. He punched his number into her Contacts in a hurry, then ducked in to press another fast kiss to her cheek.
