I needed to prove to myself that was true.
“Oh, I know you can.” Drew rubbed the bruising spot on his face where I had hit him. “But I won’t let you deal with this alone. I promise I’ll find a way to help.”
I shook my head. “You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”
Drew placed a hand across his chest as if he were offended. “Do you doubt my expert skills and badassery?”
I knew he was trying to make light of the otherwise shittysituation, but it was hard to escape the darkness that followed thoughts of Adrian.
“No. I just—” I looked down, remembering that night again. “I’ve seen what Adrian can do.”
“Hey.” Drew ducked to meet my gaze. “I’m serious when I say I’ll be here for you. Every step of the way. He can’t hurt you anymore. I won’t let him.”
Like the pull of magnets, we gravitated toward one another. We were so close. Just one more inch and his mouth would be on mine.
My lips parted in anticipation.
After everything, I think I needed this—whatever this was with Drew—because, without him, I had no one. If it wasn’t for him and Leah, I would have already left town. I never would have had the courage to go back to school or find a place that felt like home.
With our lips still only a few inches apart, Drew’s hands slipped up to cup my face before he sighed, pulled back, and whispered, “As much as I want to kiss you until your lips are all red and swollen, we should go. Whoever did this to your apartment may come back.”
Still dazed from our almost kiss, I blinked and painfully tore my gaze from his lips up to his eyes.
Drew smiled softly. “You can stay with me tonight. We’ll figure something else out tomorrow.”
The fog finally cleared, and I looked around at my trashed apartment. Drew was right. They might come back, and I didn’t feel comfortable staying here. I shivered at the idea.
“You’re right,” I said. “I can’t stay here, but I don’t need to go to your place. I’ll get a hotel.”
I pulled my phone out from my pocket to look up the closest one in town, but Drew snatched it out of my hands before I could.
“Hotels are too risky and easy to access. Whoever is afteryou, they’ll be expecting that if you’re not here. You’ll be safer with me at my apartment in case that guy has the balls to follow us.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, scowling at him. “Fine,” I said, not wanting to admit it. “You’re right.”
“Wait a second.” Drew grinned. “Is that the second time tonight you said I was right?”
I playfully pushed at his broad and surprisingly hard chest. “Don’t get used to it.”
CHAPTER SIX
KATHERINE
“Make yourself at home,” Drew said as he led me inside his apartment.
With my duffle bag in one hand and my schoolbag in the other, I stepped into the open living room tentatively and wondered if staying with him was a good idea.
I might be safer with Drew, but that didn’t ease the awkwardness I had created by ignoring him over the last few months.
Drew’s apartment was modern and up-to-date with nice, expensive furniture, renovated kitchen fixtures, and the kind of hardwood floors that any homeowner would die for.
You’d expect it to be messy and disorganized, but it was clean and cozy—homey even.
There was a huge, soft-as-silk rug that stretched across the living room and in front of the five-cushioned black sectional couch against the back wall. A few snake plants—sure to be Leah’s influence—were evenly spaced throughout the open-concept room.
Honestly, his apartment looked more like a magazine ad than a living space for a man in his late 20s.
After Drew locked the door behind us, he took the duffle bag from my hand and walked past the kitchen on the left and into the hall that, I assumed, led to his bedroom straight ahead. Just before he turned the corner, he looked back over his shoulder to where I still stood.
