I suppress a sneer and head toward the door. “Goodnight, Li.”
“Wait.” She closes the glass sliding door, then turns to face me. “Are you okay? You’ve been blowing hot and cold all day. And thatgoodnightwas said with a bit of contempt, so...is there something you want to say to me?”
“No.”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“Nope.”
“Do you...resent me for—”
“You’re overthinking again. It wasn’t aimed at you.”
“Then who was it aimed at? I’m the only one here.”
This is going to sound so stupid. “Your pajamas.”
“My pajamas?” Her giggle confirms how stupid it is. “You hate my pajamas?”
“I hate seeing you in them.”
She obviously doesn’t understand the depth of my hatred because she laughs again. “They’repajamas. What else am I supposed to wear to bed?”
Again, all I can hear is Dylan:What’s stopping you? She likes you. You’re crazy about her. Just take the plunge, go the whole nine yards, and do this properly.
I step forward, and she takes a step back, her back hitting the sliding door. It’s her subtle way of pulling away again, but she’s got no room to maneuver when I close the gap between us. Uncertainty weighs down my movement as I raise my hand.
Just take the plunge.
I slowly undo the top button of her pajamas, and her breath hitches.
“Ideally...I’d like you to wear my T-shirts to bed.” I undo the next button. “And ideally, I’d like it to bemybed you sleep in.”
Her throat works as she swallows. “I thought we talked about this.”
“Hmm...” Placing my forearm above her head, I lean closer and undo another button. “Remind me again how we arrived at this very unsustainable conclusion.”
“Uh...I want something serious. You don’t want to give up your single life...and we agreed that compromising somewhere in the middle wouldn’t work long-term.”
Take the plunge. Offer her something more than just sex.
“Uh-huh.” My fingers slip beneath the material, lightly caressing the smooth skin between her breasts. “And what if...what if we didn’t compromise somewhere in the middle? What if I told you I would come all the way over to your side...if you just stopped pulling away from me?”
She freezes, her wide hazel eyes locking on mine. “Peter...we both know that’s not what you want. I know you want to do the right thing, but you don’t have to feel obligated to be with me because of the baby. If I weren’t pregnant, we never would’ve seen each other again.”
“Is that how you remember it?” My fingertips trace lightly over her stomach, and she shivers. “Because I remember waiting hours in a parking lot just to see you again...and that was before I knew about the baby.”
For the first time, it looks like she’s seriously considering the true motivations for my actions. I give her time to process that because it took me almost the entire day to come to grips with it, too.
She looks down, watching my hand skim across her skin. “There’s so much at stake. What if it doesn’t work out—”
“The fact that there’s so much at stake means we’ll do everything we can to make it work, right?”
Doubt and skepticism play with her expression. Tears brim in her eyes, and I can see that she’s as scared as me to take this step. “You’re not a one-woman kinda man, Peter. I’m never gonna be enough for you. Eventually, you’re gonna get bored and—”
“Why don’t you stop judging me for the past, and I’ll stop freaking out about the future, and we can both just put all our time and energy into buildingusin the present?”
“I promised myself that I wouldn’t fall for the alluring charms of an immortal fuckboy.”