Page 128 of Force a Date

Meanwhile, she’s staring at her food like if she eats it she’s going to die.

“You gotta eat, baby,” I mutter through another bite of my own burger. “I’m not gonna have you starve while I talk.”

Her blue eyes don’t stray from her fries when she replies, “I’d rather you talk first before I might throw up.”

“It’s not all that bad.”

Her focus snaps up to me. “You purposely holding it from me until we got our food is pretty nauseating, Hudson.”

I thought this would be the proper thing to do but obviously what the fuck do I remember about dating someone? Liv deserves more than the bullshit I’ve dished out and I’m only here to make it up to her while starting a life that includes a fresh start.

Still don’t know if I’m doing it right but I didn’t want a video call to explain it all. I wanted to show her how serious my ass is about all this.

“I’m moving to California if you want me,” I reveal while the thudding in my chest amps up to a new high. “I’ve already told the boys that if I come back from this trip and you agree to pick up where we left off, I’m moving my shit over here.”

“Here?”

“Here.”

“In California?” she asks slowly as she gapes at me like I’ve lost my entire mind right before her very eyes.

Yet, I still continue with the full story.

“Rapture Ink can be back up and running within months. I’m not worried about that. I just didn’t want to cramp your style and what you’re trying to accomplish out here. If you want a new beginning without shit from the past, I just need you to nod your head and I won’t bother you anymore. But I wasn’t not going to try with you. I let you go and I didn’t end it the way I should’ve. In fact, I shouldn’t have?—”

“You’d really leave?”

I hate that she’d even have to ask.

However, I know my delivery is shit. My reactions to most things are subpar and not well thought out.

And I have some work to do.

“Baby, I’d stay if you’d give me another chance,” I express smoothly. “And I’d leave if you wanted to live your life without me. I have no other reason to stay. I’m not gonna lie and tell you I need a change of scenery because I don’t. I don’t want anyone else but you and I’d start a new life anywhere as long as you were in it.”

“Can we talk somewhere else?”

I can’t help but scrunch my face because I don’t know how somewhere else would make the story different. “Where do you wanna go?”

“The airport so I can drop you off.”

Shit.

Hesitantly, I stare at her for a second before nodding even though my whole heart sinks into an empty pit of rejection and things I can’t change.

I begin to fish for my wallet out of my back pocket with my free hand, conjuring up another plan, before something hits my face and a fry lands aimlessly in my lap.

“I never pegged you for someone who took things as they stand and not fight for them.”

I drop the burger that I didn’t realize I was still holding because my appetite is gone and Liv is handing me out a round of vagueness that I’m barely able to stand. “Don’t count me out just yet, Opie. I still haven’t gotten you in the car.”

“Still wouldn’t have changed anything.” She leans back in her chair, holding my stare and crossing her arms haughtily against her busty chest. The challenge is back in her eyes and I love nothing more than to push back on it. “You flew over here and the first sign of my not giving in so freely to you, you fold. Actually…you collapsed.”

I hum through her confidence and retrieve some of my pride. “You must’ve never been finger-fucked properly before,” I goad back. “I might as well use my potential last moment with you to my advantage.”

“You’ve never dealt with me mad.”

“And you’ve never seen me beg.” A blush blankets her cheeks and I press onward, leaning over the table and fixing her with a look that I know can only protrude hunger and lust. “What do I gotta do to get you on my face, Opie, and make you come all over my fucking mouth?”

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