Page 22 of Can't Take My Eyes Off You

‘It’s a holiday, Berx. We agreed we could be the old us on holidays. It’s in the rules, remember? New Year’s is important. It moves us into an entirely new time dimension and you’re who I want to see the second that gets here.And… I miss you. Seeing you at lunch recently has me thinking about you non-stop and I’m now realizing why you don’t want face-to-face visits. It makes walking away too hard.’

‘Yet here you are breaking every rule.’

He sighs into my hair. ‘I have no control when it comes to you.’

This break-up has not done great things for me. I’m struggling. He doesn’t want to be broken up, and he makes it known (if tonight wasn’t a tell). But I can’t invest in us because his new life is partying, and it’s only a matter of time before he does something stupid. He’s a twenty-three-year-old guy with way too much money. He’sgoingto fuck up and I need to protect my heart.

But… I’m also weak so I wiggle in his arms, turning towards him so we’re face to face. Maybe I wanted to give him the cold shoulder in public or earlier when I realized he wasn’t an intruder, but now I just want him.

‘Hey, beautiful,’ he says, kissing my forehead, then my lips. After a minute, he breaks the kiss, lifting the blankets and looking me over. ‘You’re wearing my shirt,’ he says, his eyes stopping on the wordsKiss Me, I’m Irish, an arrow pointing towards my groin. ‘Want me to follow orders?’

‘Only if this counts officially as number two and not a freebie,’ I admit. ‘But not yet.’ I reach up, running a hand through his hair and staring into his eyes. ‘I hate this. I feel like your side ho.’

‘You’re my main ho, baby.’ He chuckles.

I don’t. ‘Not funny.’

‘I know, I’m sorry.’ He kisses me again.

‘I didn’t think I’d get to see you tonight since I refused to go out.’

‘We’re filming,’ he says. ‘If they want us to go out, we go out, but I kept an eye on the time and slipped out when I had the chance. I was going to text you, but time got away from me, and after our phone call didn’t go the way I’d hoped, I wasn’t sure you’dwantto see me tonight. It’s why I snuck in. I wanted to surprise you.’

Our phone call wasn’t that bad. Just the usual me refusing to hang out with him and his ass-face friends and residual feelings that I fight off, so I feel I’m in control of the situation.

‘We can’t keep doing holiday freebies, Will. Do you have any idea how many there are? Next thing I’ll know we’ll be honoring Grandparents’ Day with an old-fashioned freebie bang. I can’t.’

He laughs, but then goes serious. ‘You really want me to leave?’

‘No,’ I say quietly.

‘Tell me what you want, Berkley.’

Finally, I give in, sliding a hand over his ribcage, to pull myself closer to him, kissing his chest. He closes his eyes as I do, breathing out what feels like a sigh of relief.

‘I want to be with you,’ I say truthfully. ‘But it’s counting as our second relapse, because as you just said, it’s getting too difficult to walk away.’

He frowns. ‘Alright. So for tonight, we’re the old us again?’

‘Yep,’ I say.

‘Then I can finally say the words I want to. I love you,’ he says, hopeful.

‘I know, Will. I know.’ I might not be able to say the words, but that doesn’t stop me from kissing him back when his lips meet mine because I apparently have zero willpower. Pun. Intended.

8

WILL

‘What can I get you two to drink?’ a waitress says as she stops at the end of our table.

I glance at Berkley, her hair braided and pulled over her shoulder as she looks at the menu. Even fresh out of bed, with yesterday’s makeup on, she’s still gorgeous. I insisted I take her to breakfast because I hate leaving like I’m a one-night stand for her and even though last night was otherworldly, that’s what this morning feels like.

‘Coffee?’ she asks.

I hold up two fingers to the waitress.

‘I’ll be right back,’ the waitress says, flashing me anI know who you aresmile.

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