She smiles. “Shut up and kiss me.”
I do as I’m told, because I’m helpless to resist her. When she finally draws away, I set her on the couch next to me and nod at her box. “Your turn.”
She slips a finger gingerly under the ribbon.
“It’s a gift,” I say, “not an incendiary device.”
She smiles and tugs harder, pulling the ribbon loose. When she opens the box, she just looks at the key to my apartment inside for a long moment before pinching it between her finger and thumb and pulling it out.
“I want you to know there’s no part of my life that’s not yours. Anytime you need somewhere to go, I want it to be my place you think of. I want it to feel like home to you.”
She’s still staring at the key. “I couldn’t just walk in.”
“Why not? I want you to.”
“What if you’re…I don’t know, dancing around naked or whatever?”
I just look at her.
She shrugs. “Okay, I guess you’re not a dancing around naked kind of guy, but you know what I mean.”
“I don’t.”
She tosses a hand at me. “What if you’re doing something private, or…with someone?”
My heart freezes. This isn’t how I saw this going. I thought she’d get that me giving her a key is a huge deal, and it means I’m committed to her and this relationship. “That’s really what you think of me?”
“I don’t know what to think,” she says, shoving a hand through her hair.
“You’re joking, right?”
She shakes her head. “I’ve told you I love you at least half a dozen times. You’ve never said it back. I figured that meant you weren’t ready for any sort of commitment.”
I fix her in my gaze and pick the key I just had made yesterday out from between her fingers, holding it up for her to get a solid look at how new it is. “I’ve never done this before, Lilah. If you weren’t sixteen, I’d be asking you to move in for real. I want you with me every second of every day. I will never be with anyone else because no one else is you. You’re all I want…all I need.” I press the key into her palm and close her fingers around it. “I want you to have this because I trust you and, even if I don’t say it back, I love you.”
“Well that’s touching,” Destiny says from the hall, and both Lilah’s and my gaze snap to her. “Do you mean a word of it?”
I stand as she crosses past us to the kitchen. “Every single one of them.”
Destiny glares at me as she pours a cup of coffee. “So my sister’s not just your current flavor of the week?”
“There are no other fucking flavors,” I say getting more than a little pissed. I almost open my mouth to tell her she was my last one of those and there hasn’t been anyone but Lilah since, but rather than proving my point, that will only hurt them both.
“So you’re saying you’re going to stop bringing home barflies and college chicks from Sam Hill? Because old habits die hard, Bran.” She glances at Lilah and back to me. “Does she have any clue how many women you’ve slept with?”
“Hundreds,” Lilah says from behind me, and my stomach cramps at how slimy that makes me sound coming out of her mouth.
“Think about that number, Lilah,” Destiny says, holding her sister in a hard gaze. “Hundreds. That’s staggering. What makes you think you’re not going to be just another number?”
“She’s not just—” I start, but Lilah cuts me off.
“I’m not stupid, Destiny. I know Bran might break my heart. But if I have to choose between never taking the risk on something as intense as what I feel for Bran and nursing a hole in my chest, I’ll take the hole every time.”
Destiny shoots me a warning glare. “You took her to see our mother. Why would you do that?”
“Because she asked me to,” I answer honestly. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her if she asked.”
“My mother nearly ruined us both. She’s toxic. Lilah shouldn’t be anywhere near her.”
“I think that’s Lilah’s call.”
Destiny’s head shakes adamantly. “It’s mine. I’m the one who looks out for her. I’m the one who protects her.”
“I don’t need protecting,” Lilah says. “Especially from Bran.”
“I don’t like this, Lilah,” Destiny warns.
“Are you going to report him to the cops?” Lilah asks.
“I should. This is wrong.”
“But you won’t.”
Lilah can obviously read her sister, because Destiny blows out a breath. “Not unless he gives me a reason to.”
Lilah takes my hand. “Even then. Promise me.”
Destiny’s jaw tightens when she glances at our interwoven fingers. “You’re asking a lot, Lilah.”
“Promise me,” Lilah pushes.
Destiny spins on me. “She’s only sixteen. She doesn’t get how thoroughly a guy can ruin a girl. Do the right thing, Bran. Walk away.”
“Destiny, stop!” She squeezes my fingers and tugs me closer. “I love Bran and this is happening.”
Destiny drops into a kitchen chair and takes a long drink of coffee. “So, what now?”