Page 70 of This Time Around

“I do want.Trust me.I also think you need a minute to make sure it’s what you want.Go start the tub, climb in, relax.I’ll go get the wine you wanted and make sure the house is locked up.”

He was giving me an out I could take in a millisecond.He’d never been more attractive to me.

“But—”

“You want me to come back and join you, leave the doors open.You want to be alone, close them, and I swear to you, I won’t be pissed or disappointed.Okay?”

It had to be impossible for a man to be so perfect.He could read me like a well-loved book.A ripple of something I hadn’t felt in a long time fell down my spine, warming me in all the right places.

“No?”

His lips twitched.“I take that back.I’ll be disappointed, but it won’t change a thing.”

I laughed quietly.He always knew the right thing to say.My lip worked its way between my teeth, my nervous habit he probably read just as easily as he read my mind.“Thank you.”

“Making sure this is right for you isn’t a hardship.”

He kissed my forehead and stepped back.I walked backward into the bedroom, toward the bathroom.He watched me go, hands shoved into his jean pockets.Every step I took away from him was the wrong direction.

The very fact he offered to walk away if I wanted him to made me realize I didn’t want the option.

I stepped into the bathroom and gripped the door.“The doors will be open, Cooper.”

---