Page 47 of The Last Good Man

Sneaking his boot in, he hinders my retreat.

I open the door, a bit amused andvery muchconfident.

“This…” I say. “Whateverthisis, it won’t happen. I barely got to the point where I realized what I wanted from my life.”

“Let me guess…It wasn’t me?”hesays with a shred of self-deprecating humor.

I have to give it to him.

He has the ability to always turn things around and make me laugh, and my reaction puts a smile on his face.

“Your guess is correct.”

My smile fades as I move closer to him, walk out, and pull the door closed behind me.

“Listen,” I say quietly so we don’t disturb my neighbors. “I don’t know much about you to have something against you. It’s just that we are in two completely different places in our lives. And that pretty much says it all. As funny as it seems for you, I’ll find someone like Thomas one of these days. Perhaps a little boring, maybe not that great in bed. He might not even get it up as fast as you could.”

His eyes look fiery in the dimness as he gives me a smile again.

“And he might not stay hard as long as you could,” I drone on. "But even so, he could be enough for me simply because he and I might want the same thingsin life. Make sense?”

He weighs his answer.

“It sure does. But you don’t know what I want. You just said it. You know nothing about me.”

I read his eyes for a second.

“It’s true. But I can guess… You like fast cars––that’s a fact––and youprobablypursue feisty women. I’m not feisty in the slightest, and I don’t live life in the fast lane. It’s too dangerous for my taste. Not so much for you. And it’s all right. You shouldn’t apologize for that.”

“I’ve never apologized for that,” he says, his smile removedfrom his face.

I gesture to him asinit doesn’t matterbefore we both go quiet, and I pivot to return inside.

My hand curls around the doorknob.

“Thanks for the food,” I say to end our conversation. “And thank you for the other offer.”

Without waiting, I step away when he blocks my retreat for the second time this evening.

I look at him.

His eyes are a blur of dangerous green poison.

“You’ll give in to me one way or another. It will just take longer if you fight me.”

I stare at him in awe.

I wish I could believe him even for a second.

That would really mean I’m open to anything.

But…Can’thesee how different we are? And how at odds our life plans are?

“I know nothing about you, Jax London. And this is only the beginning. We can’t even…”

“What?”

“I don’t know. Find some common ground? Agree on a few simple things?”

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