I swallow. “You didn’t have to get involved in this. So you don’t have to act all pissed off and brooding, like I asked you to save me or something. I never once asked you to take this on your shoulders”
His eyes flash darkly. “Get out.”
“What?” I ask, heart pounding.
“Get out of the damn car.” His jaw tightens. “We’re not discussing this here.”
“Stop ordering me around!”
He’s not listening. He’s already out the driver’s side, rounding the front of the SUV and pulling me onto the sidewalk. Before I have time to process what’s going on, Boo’s leash is snatched from my grip, a large hand lands on the small of my back, and we’re up my front steps and inside my townhouse.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I shriek as soon as the door slams shut behind us. I take a few strides away from him, because I’m liable to smack him if he’s anywhere within reach. The instant Nate unclips the leash, Boo scampers into the kitchen, out of firing range.
Wise dog.
“Trying to save your goddamn life!” Nate yells. “Though, at this point, I’m not sure why the hell I’m bothering!”
“Just leave, then. Go.” My voice breaks on the last word. I ignore it. “Parker will take me to the airport tomorrow. And you and I will go back to how it was before.”
“Before?” The word is so electric, it’s giving off sparks in the air between us.
Oh boy.
I nod as I watch him warily, all my words fleeing along with my courage.
“Before what, West?” he asks in a scary quiet voice. “Before I had my tongue in your mouth? Before you were naked in my hands? Before I touched you and you almost came apart?” A smirk tugs his lips. “Can you really come back from that? I doubt it, little bird.”
“Fuck you,” I hiss.
“You were pretty damn close.”
He steps toward me.
I step back.
“I’m not a robot. I had a physiological reaction. So, sue me.” I jerk my chin higher. I’m not sure when this fight became about us, but now that it has there’s no going back. “Just because you’re an expert at blocking out every feeling you’ve ever had doesn’t mean I have to be. Maybe that makes me weak, and maybe I’ll get hurt in the long run, but I’d rather be like this than be like you.”
“Like me?” he asks, voice rumbling with barely-contained anger.
My voice drops to a broken whisper. “Incapable of feelings. Of trusting someone. Of love.”
“You wouldn’t know love if it bit you in the ass, sweetheart.”
I scoff. “That’s rich, coming from you.”
“And why is that, West?” he growls. “Please, enlighten me.”
“Like you know anything about love, Nate?” I roll my eyes. “You’ve never loved a goddamned thing in your life.”
He stares at me — hard, unflinching. “You don’t know a damn thing.”
“I may not know everything.” I bite the inside of my cheek so hard I taste blood. “But I do know what love is.”
“You know a definition in a dictionary. You know a fucking proverb — love is patient love is kind. That’s bullshit. Because love, real love, the kind that lasts forever… it’s not patient or kind. Not pretty or perfect. It’s rough and hard as all hell. It’s ugly.” He steps closer, eyes never shifting from mine. “Love is holding someone’s filthy, tarnished heart in your hands and claiming it as yours anyway.”
My breath catches.
He takes another step. “And you don’t like dirty, do you, West? You like everything pretty as a picture. Look at this fucking house!” He gestures around. “Not a rug out of place. Straight out of a Crate & Barrel catalogue. Perfect clothes, perfect dog, perfect job. Not a speck of dirt in your whole goddamned life.”
“That’s not true.” I swallow. “My life is far from perfect.”