“Also what?”
I shrugged. “I’m waiting for you to make me pay.”
“Pay?”
“For my debt to you… for not killing me. And for giving me a roof over my head and feeding me and…”
“You don’t owe me shit,” he said, tone clipped. He stepped closer to me, so close I could smell him.
I stood straighter, my fingers gripping the counter behind me. Raising my chin, I said, “Nothing in this world comes for nothing. I’m just waiting for you to tell me what you want.”
“I don’t want anything from you.”
“Maybe I do,” I said. “Maybe I need to have a reason for you being so kind to me. For giving me all of this… so just tell me what it is you want.”
His eyes narrowed. “What is it you think I want from you, Bailey?”
“Sex. Isn’t that what all guys want?”
He stayed silent, shaking his head at me. He looked pissed, and I had no idea why. Without responding, he turned on his heels and left the room, slamming the door behind him.
The tension left me as soon as he was gone.
But I knew it wasn’t over.
He was angry.
I was avoiding.
There was no way it could end well.
11
Bailey
I tossed and turned in bed for what felt like hours, although I had no real clue. There were no clocks in the house. This I realized after looking through every room in the entire house. Including the one bedroom that looked like it hadn’t been touched in years. The house was big, bigger than the one I’d grown up in, with open kitchen and living areas. There were three bedrooms, all connected via a hallway that came off from the living room. The décor seemed old, at least from what I could tell, and definitely nothing like what I’d expect a guy like Nate to live in. But it was comfortable, homey even.
With a sigh, I kicked off the sheets and finally succumbed to the guilt I felt from our earlier conversation. I got up and knocked on his bedroom door, and waited for a response. When it didn’t come, I knocked again.
I heard shuffling on the other side, and then footsteps approaching, and when he opened the door, I took a step back, my eyes locked on his bare chest.
“What’s up?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
“Were you sleeping?” My gaze trailed down his chest to each individual dip of his abs. His sweats hung low on his hips; the band of his boxers visible. Then I did what I always did when I got nervous or scared; I started counting. My eyes moving from one outlined muscle to the other.
I got to four before he said, “Bailey?”
My eyes darted to his.
“Is everything okay?”
I nodded, my mouth dry.
“You know it’s three in the morning, right?”
“Sorry.” I turned and started to leave when he caught my arm.
“No. It’s fine. Are you okay? Do you need something?”
I faced him and kept my head lowered, trying to hide the heat in my cheeks. “It’s just that earlier, Tiny said you had something to tell me?” He didn’t respond, and when I finally looked up, his eyes were fixed on his hand on my arm. “Nate? Or should I call you Boss?”
“Nate’s fine,” he said, distracted. He blinked once, finally coming to, and released his hold. He used the same hand to comb through his hair. “I had to tell you that…” he trailed off, going back to his room and sitting on the bed, motioning for me to sit next to him. The room was dark, the only light source coming from a lamp at the end of the hallway. “Actually,” he said, “before we talk about that, I wanted to speak to you about something else.”
I gripped the edge of his mattress and fought to keep my adrenaline in check. Given my past, I wasn’t a huge fan of sitting in dark rooms with strangers. “Can you turn a light on? I don’t—”
“Sure,” he cut in, reaching over and switching on a lamp on his nightstand. When he turned to me, his eyes were so piercing I had to look away. But where I looked wasn’t much better. “And maybe put on a shirt?”
“It’s like a hundred degrees,” he said with a sigh.
“Oh yeah…”
He turned his entire body to face me. “I’m sorry for my reaction earlier. I hate that you’d think that I’d want that from you. I’m not like that, Bailey.”
I held my breath as he continued to speak. “I get you’ve had a shitty life, and you’ve probably been let down by a lot of people you trusted. But you saying that—well, it made me feel like shit, to be honest. You kind of put me in the same category as Pauly and PJ.”
I choked on a gasp, my eyes closing as my heart beat out of my chest. “I’m sorry,” I struggled to say through the sob trying to escape. I pushed it down like I always did, and opened my eyes to see him watching me intently. “I know you’re not like them at all.”
“Good,” he said, nodding slowly. “I’m glad you know that, and I need you to remember that because you’re going to be here a while and you and me—we can’t live like this—you in fear of me, and me not knowing how to be around you.”
I returned his nod.