“I’m fine.” He cleared his throat awkwardly. “So listen…”
A startling combination of hope and disappointment clamored inside her. He was going to break it off with her. This threesome had evidently been too much for him. He’d only been pretending to enjoy it, but now that his friend was gone, he was going to tell her that he didn’t want to be with someone as slutty as she was. Awful as it was, it was what she’d been trying to achieve by suggesting this little ménage, yet a part of her was a tad disappointed that it had been so easy, childish as that was.
“Savannah, I think I’m falling in love with you.”
Even though she was lying down, she almost fell over. “What?”
“You heard me,” he said gruffly.
“You…I…of course you’re not.” She sat up abruptly. “That’s silly.”
Anger flashed in his eyes. “Why exactly is that silly?”
Panic spiraled through her body like a relentless tornado. How was this actually happening? This damn threesome was her way to try and put some distance between her and Matt. All those dates and talks and the staggeringly amazing sex… It scared her. After the fierce jealousy she’d experienced when learning that Annabelle had slept with Matt, Savannah had realized just how close she was to developing real feelings for this man. It was like she was falling off a cliff and had two landing options—the water, which meant being safe and happy but alone, or the jagged rocks, a relationship that, like all the others, would end in heartbreak.
She didn’t want to crash into those rocks. Her first priority had always been herself, and so she’d tried pushing Matt away by bringing another man into their bed.
And he’d liked it!
She’d seen the passionate fire burning in his eyes when both he and Aidan had been fucking her. And now he was telling her he loved her?
“You can’t actually mean that,” she burst out. “And is this really the time you want to declare your love, after I just slept with your friend?”
“It was just sex,” he said with a shrug. “But you and me…that’s more than sex, Savannah. I think you know it but you’re too freaking scared to admit it. We get along—”
“So?” she cut in. “I get along with my dentist—that doesn’t mean we love each other.”
“We laugh together,” he went on, ignoring the interruption. “We like the same shitty horror movies, we have mind-blowing sex, we never run out of things to say to each other.” Looking aggravated, he put on his T-shirt, then buttoned up his jeans. “So yeah, all those things make me think this is more than a damn fling.”
She bit on her thumbnail, reverting back to an old nail-biting habit she only turned to when she was seriously panic-stricken. He couldn’t really mean any of this. Or at least, the love part of it. They’d known each other two weeks, a month if you counted the first meeting at the bank. That wasn’t enough time for him to fall in love with her.
She didn’t want him to fall in love with her.
Matt released a ragged breath. “Why does it not surprise me that you’re reacting this way?”
She bristled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re a coward, Savannah. You act all tough and confident, like you don’t care about anything but having a good time, but we both know that’s a big fat lie. You want a relationship—you’re just too damn scared.”
Her lips tightened in offense. “I told you, I’m not a relationship person. They never last for me.”
Matt barked out a humorless laugh. “Because maybe you haven’t found the right man, ever thought of that? If you’re not meant to be with someone, obviously the relationship will end. But when you find the right person…” He let the comment hang.
“And I suppose you’re the right person for me?” She scoffed. “We’ve known each other a couple of weeks, Matt. Besides, it won’t work out between us.”
He raised one dark eyebrow. “Do you have psychic powers I’m not aware of? How do you know it won’t work out?”
She raked the fingers of her left hand through her hair in an aggravated gesture. “Because it never does. Not for me, anyway. Something always ends up going wrong.”
“Maybe it won’t this time,” he said quietly.
“And maybe it will.” She stuck her chin out stubbornly. “I made the decision a long time ago not to take that chance anymore. I don’t want any more broken hearts. And I’m tired of the awful sense of boredom and sadness I feel when the thrill ends up dying out.”
Realizing she was still naked, she scrambled off the bed and angrily rummaged on the floor for her clothes. She shoved on her jeans without bothering with underwear, threw her shirt over her head, and crossed her arms. “Look, I really do like you,” she said, softening her tone. “Enough that I don’t want to come to the point where I don’t like you anymore, or where you don’t like me.”
“And what if we never reach that point?” he challenged.