Page 29 of Elusive

“Then you’ll be happy to hear… I’mdone. It’s your turn.”

*****

“Good thing I stopped, even though you were on the fence about being hungry,” he teases, watching me finish off my double cheeseburger.

I scowl at him while swallowing the last bite, only amusing him more. “Hand me your trash, I’ll throw it away inside.” When he doesn’t, I reach for it, ready to say goodbye, for good, and retreat inside my lonely little haven.

“Presley, I waited patiently while we ate, doesn’t mean I’m letting you off the hook. I’m not walking you to your door, and you’re not walking in your door, until you talkto me.”

“It’s late,” my groan’s as lackluster and dreary as this whole evening — except that kiss, branded into my mind forever— anything but lackluster.

“Three questions,” he hurriedly counters.

I shift to face him. “Three, and make ‘em count, ‘cause after… we’re done. With everything.”

God, he’s gorgeous, and the sexiest kind of adorable… eyes cast up in thought, plump lips twisted as he debates how to best use his three questions. “Got it. First one,” his stare darkens as it bores into mine. “Why did you run, stop talking to me, just like that?”

I sit up straighter, drag in a breath of compromise, and decide to put it all out there — candid and unashamed. “Because I knew I’d met my match. That you could actually be the one to finally throw me off balance, my game, if I didn’t cut ties. I caught myself, toomanytimes, thinking about you when you weren’t around, and… waiting to hear what you’d say next. To make me laugh. Smile. Reconfirm how you just… “get me.” Scoping you out, from the corner of my eye, to see if you were doing the same. It was too much, I was getting in too deep, thus, time for me to go. So, to keep my mind occupied, and try to prove I’m not a cold-hearted bitch who’s unconcerned with other people’s feelings, which I’ve recently learned is the consensus, I enlisted the help of my family — probably not the best idea I’ve ever had — suggest any decent guys I could try and date. And maybe this first one didn’t turn out so well, since he was feelin’ my cousin, but that’ll be the last of that particular problem,” I laugh, not at all disgruntled, “‘cause my only other female cousin is more than taken. Things have nowhere to go but up.”

I expect him to ask me to expand on that, but he’s silent, lest his deep, slow breathing. He takes his time studying me, as if memorizing my every nuance, until finally, his voice crackles with the same hopeful curiosity alive in his eyes. “Why’d you come back?”

I’ve already shared much more than I ever planned to, might as well show my whole hand. “I… missed you,” I whisper, having never spoken louder in my life.

His lids droop to half-mast, mouth gradually curling up into a devastatingly sexy smirk. He doesn’t say anything though… so I do.

“You’ve got one more question left.”

“I’ll save it. Heard all I needed to know, Hot Shot.”

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