I felt strangled by the lie, because Veronica was a lot of things, but she definitely wasn’t my friend. But I pushed right past it, our faces too close, the need spinning through me almost too much to bear.
My lips just brushed her cheek. “Turned out you needed me more.”
That potent gaze flamed and brimmed, her words hushed. “Have you ever wondered if each day of our lives is purposed? If every step we take is exactly where we’re supposed to be?”
She dropped her attention, her fingers trembling when she reached out to the ink etched on the back of my hand. She traced the shooting star that blazed before it burned thin.
Fragments charred to dust.
I shivered, trying to hold it back, hold it in. This need that flickered and boiled in my blood.
My voice was grit. “I’d like to imagine that. But then I’m left wondering about the bad things. The horrible shit that goes down and the terrible things people do to each other.”
She caught that bottom lip between her teeth, and my dick twitched. This girl just sucked me in further and further. Taking me deeper and making me question every single thing I knew as truth.
“What if the good moments are reprieve? Mercy that’s been granted?”
God. This girl was good. Flush with grace.
Like she’d been sent as a sustaining breath in a world that threatened to suffocate.
Transparency in a life full of confusion and doubt and questions.
I pressed my hands against the table and pushed away. Like it might put enough distance between us to extinguish the smolder. Douse the coals growing hotter and hotter.
And there it was again. The beginning strains of a song. I could hear it. Notes weaving and spinning. Lyrics knitting together to make something whole.
For the first time in years, my fingers itched with the urge to sit down and bring it to life. To create and compose.
This song?
It would be soft and sweet and tender.
Exactly the kind of love this girl would be.
I knew it.
Felt it bursting in that space between us.
Sweet.
Uncomplicated.
True.
My guts clenched, knowing I was walking too thin a line. It was time to end this before I did something else I couldn’t take back.
Resigned, I pushed out a strained breath and stood, dug out my wallet, and tossed a stack of bills onto the table. “Let’s get you home.”
Surprise flitted through her expression before it dipped into something that looked too close to rejection. Reluctantly, she nodded. “Okay.”
I did my best to ignore the way she trembled when I set a palm at the small of her back. Did my best to ignore the flames that smoldered and lapped. To ignore the way our breaths came shorter and harder when our skin touched.
I ushered her out the door and onto the busy sidewalk. The second we stepped out, agitation lit. Anxiously, I looked left then right, because the last thing I needed was a camera shoved in my face.
God, this was stupid.
Warily, Alexis shifted around so she could look up at me. It was like she sensed that I was pulling away. Because that dark storm in her eyes was begging me to stay.
My fingers jerked, my pulse an erratic thunder hammering through my veins. I wavered, trying to talk myself down. Should’ve known better because all it took was the softest smile gracing that mouth to send my willpower crumbling down around me.
Because there was something sorrowful in her expression—a goodbye.
“Thank you so much for lunch. For worrying about me today. I know you don’t know what it means to me, but if there was any way I could show you, I would.”
Panic bubbled to the surface. I couldn’t stand the thought of letting her go. I needed to know she was safe. That she was taken care of and protected until that bastard was locked away.
I ignored the fact that it was clearly more than that. That standing there, I wanted to give this girl everything.
So I caved.
My hand was shaking like a bitch when I reached out and cupped her cheek. Heat sped across my skin. All those cold, dark places lit up. Desperate and needy for her warmth. My voice dropped in a way to match. “You really want to learn to play piano?”
She stilled at my words, this brave, gorgeous girl looking up at me with kindness and trust. She nodded against my hand. “I want it more than anything.”
No doubt there was something more in that simple statement.
Fuck, I was a fool. Because my offer was out before I could stop it.
“Let me teach you, and in return, you let me protect you until that bastard is off the street.”
She stared up at me. “What does that mean?”
“That means you stick close. Your sister calls? You call me. You think you need to meet her? I come with you. You let me be there. Simple as that.”
That energy thrashed around us like an approaching storm.
“Then why does it feel so complicated?”
Chapter Eleven
Alexis
The interior hall was deserted, the entire place completely quiet as I stood in front of two big metal doors. My heart raced, alive with this thrill that had followed me through the last four days.
I could have sworn when Zee had abruptly stood from the table that day at the café that it was the end. That whatever obstacles standing between us had become too much for him. That maybe I’d pushed him too far.
But I’d never been the type of person to tiptoe. Had never been one to keep my tongue tamed when I felt I had something important that needed to be said. And offering all those truths to him had felt important.
Vital.
Sucking in a steeling breath, I rapped my fist against one side of the door. That nervous energy magnified when I heard movement on the other side, thrummed and sped when the door unlatched and one side opened to reveal the man standing there.
The man who had to be the most intriguing I’d ever met.
Carved in mystery and sculpted in secrecy.
“Alexis.” His voice grazed across my skin, and his gaze made its own electrifying path, sweeping me from head to toe.
A shiver rolled through me when I did the same, taking in the man dressed in a pair of soft worn jeans and an even softer tee.
I had this foreign urge to reach out and press my hands against him, to feel the strength I saw bristling beneath the fabric.
“Hi,” I whispered.
He stepped back and widened the door. “I’m really glad you came.”
“You didn’t think I would?”
His head tipped and he scratched at his neck. One side of his mouth arched into an affected grin. “No. I didn’t really think that. I just thought by now you might’ve come to your senses.”
“And why on earth would I go and do something like that?” I almost teased, though I realized I was clutching my big bag tight to my chest as if it might act as a shield. As protection against what this boy was gaining the power to do to me.
Which seemed insane because I was the girl who was never afraid.
A low chuckle rippled through the air, and he eyed me with the slightest grin. “The girl who’ll give up anything to save the world but won’t stop long enough to save herself.”
I could almost hear the warning behind it, but I chose to ignore it and stepped into his loft.
“Wow.”