Page 42 of The Breakup

He glanced down at me with those pale blue eyes, his jaw clenched. Then he focused back on the road. “Too much, babe. It feels too good and I’m not coming in you in the car. But also, we’re almost to town. You need to sit up.”

“Oh, okay.” I wiped my mouth and sat up, pleased with myself. I gave him a smug smile.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you got exactly what you wanted.”

“But I did.” Then I realized the irony of those words.

I hadn’t gotten anything I had thought I wanted today.

And I wasn’t going to hide in the car either.

So, wearing my sunglasses and my hat, I strode into the pizza place with Christian. He had placed the order on his phone, and when I saw he had a two-liter soda to go with our pizza, I looked at him in question.

He grinned. “You owe me a serenade of the alphabet song.”

I laughed. With anyone else I would assume he didn’t really expect me to burp for him, but with Christian I knew he meant it.

He wanted to see the real Bella, belching and all.

It was like an entire lifetime of pleasing other people was shaken to the core.

I could be me, even if I didn’t entirely know who that was.

“Is there anything else I owe you?” I asked, meaning it to be suggestive.

But Christian leaned on the counter and smiled at me. He reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear. “Baby, you don’t owe me anything. This is all about you. All of it.”

The sounds of the cashier ringing up our order and the hum of voices from the kitchen faded into the background. My eyes teared up behind my sunglasses and my heart squeezed. Christian really was a good man.

And I realized that I was just vulnerable and still gullible enough that I might actually fall for him.

I couldn’t let that happen. I took a step back, shifting out of his touch, and grabbed the pizza box off the counter.

“I’m going to hold you to that,” I said, lighthearted and flirtatious.

This was about sex. Nothing more.

I needed to remember that.

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