“Watching Jax and Zoey made me – jealous,” I admit with a sigh.He throws his head back with a loud cackle. “Everybody gets jealous of those two.”
“You don’t.” It’s a statement – an observation. I’ve never seen Zane look at them once with any type of longing.
“You’re right. I don’t. How could I be jealous of them when I’ve seen firsthand what they’ve been through? Yeah, their love is on another level, but so is Rory and Layla’s and Bastian and Verity's.” I recognize Rory's name. And Sebastian Delrie too, of course, but I have no idea what he’s talking about. “My point is that every love – real love is on another level and just as powerful and consuming as Jax and Zoey. The only difference is the backstory.”
“What if I try this whole relationship thing and screw it up? What if I fall ass over feet and you break my heart? What if -.”
“Tori, you will drive yourself insane with what ifs like that. What if you don’t screw it up or get your heart broken? You can’t predict the future, and neither can I. Are you going to let it stop you from finding out what life – love – has to offer? What if you walk across the street and get hit by a bus? Will you stop leaving your apartment?”
“How do you do that? How do you just say everything that seems to make perfect sense when I can’t even form a coherent thought?”
He presses his lips against my temple. “Because I watch and observe. I don’t get caught up in what ifs. I see what I want, I take it.”
“But I never wanted this, Zane. I didn’t want any of it,” I say through the threat of more tears.
“I just told you, Baby, when I see what I want, I take it, and I wanted you.”
I shake my head with a very soggy snort of a laugh at his confidence. “I still don’t know how to do a relationship, Zane. This could go very, very wrong.”
He turns me to face him. The look in his eyes has never been so serious. So, focused and intent. “Tori, you don’t even see it, do you? You been in a relationship for months now. This? You and me? It’s a relationship.”
“Some relationship,” I can help but snark. “You leave me panting at the door so that I have to find BOB every night.”
“If you must know,” he teases with a little tickle to my ribs, “I was trying to prove to you that there is more to a relationship than sex. I didn’t want you to think you were another number in my book, and I damn sure didn’t want to be another one of your fuck buddies.”
I scoff, a little insulted at the fuck buddies statement. “I don’t sleep around a lot, Zane.”
“Never said you did, darlin’. But I did. And if you think you’ve been the only one tortured, I promise you’re not. It’s not easy to go from getting laid every night to not at all. I haven’t just been proving something to you. I’ve been proving it to myself too. Now can we go back upstairs so everyone passing will stop taking pictures.”
“Oh shit,” I put my hand over my mouth. “Have they really been taking pictures?” I assumed they had a couple of time but never saw anyone actually do it.
“A few,” he shrugs.
“Then I guess we should get inside.”
Zane
I sit back in the low club chair with Jax and Calvin, the Raptors newly signed running back, watching Tori dance with my very pregnant sister. Dance and laugh like they’re having the time of their lives. Watching her with my sister further solidifies the feelings that have continued to grow for a while now. And she’s so damn beautiful as she lets go. She’s a free spirit and carries the weight of the world all at once.
She probably thinks I don’t notice how she’s checked her phone half a dozen times tonight waiting on texts from her brother and sister. Or how she practically leapt to answer the phone call from Pete, who I am dying to meet. She worries about the people in her life that are special to her, but all the while thinks she doesn’t know how to be in a relationship.
“You two are kind of making me look bad with my girl,” Calvin says drawing my attention away from the dance floor.
“You don’t need help with that, man,” I taunt good naturedly.
“I knew McCabe here had it bad for his wife, but the way you keep staring at your girl, you’d think you hadn’t seen her in years.”
Jax gives a little chuckle. “You’re not going to last much longer,” he tells me.
With a grin I agree. I’m not going to last the rest of the night. I’m doing all I can to make it back to the apartment, but there is no way in hell I’m having her for the first time in the bathroom of this club.
“How the hell can you two look so – whipped?” Calvin asks. “I can’t imagine looking at one girl the way you two are.”
“Jax has looked at one girl like that his entire life,” I smirk drinking the rest of my drink.
Calvin just shakes his head. “I can’t imagine settling for the same pussy for the rest of my life. Not now at least. I’m young and healthy and like variety.”
I shake my head with a laugh and Jax smirks. “You do you, man,” Jax tells him.
