Page 182 of Catch Me
He closed his eyes. “I don’t trust you.”
“That’s . . . Yeah, I guess I knew that.”
He took the keycard from my hand and reached around me to scan it, then opened the door. I sucked in a breath when he put a hand on my chest and pushed me forward until we were inside.
“You promised.” He looked pent up—maybe from the loss today or the same frustration I’d felt since I laid eyes on him in his kitchen last week.
This conversation was becoming exhausting, but he’d sought me out, and I thought that was a good sign. If he wanted to talk about it again, we could talk about it. Or fight. I wasn’t sure how it would go this time.
“I get that I hurt you,” I said softly. “But it was a couple days late, Travis.”
His expression hardened. “A couple days late is still nine fucking days. A single text. You didn’t have to be ready, and I told you that.”
“I was an idiot, I know. Regardless of what you said, I felt like I needed to have something figured out first. I wanted to havesomethingto give you.”
“All I asked for was you.”
“You can have me. Anything you want.” He shook his head, and I felt my desperation rise. “If you still care about me, why can’t we try again?”
“Why?” he repeated incredulously. “Because of what you did. No, because of how I felt. And you can’t pretend you didn’t know how I felt because I told you. I begged you, but you still gave me nothing. I can’t forget that.”
“Then, why are you here? Why are we talking about it again?”
“I don’t know!” he shouted before he leaned back against the wall and blew out a long breath.
“Tell me you don’t care.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Did it ever mean something to you?” I asked. “Any of it?”
The way his expression cracked made my chest ache. The sadness in his eyes right now was infinitely worse than that voicemail.
“Why won’t you leave me alone?” he murmured.
“You came to my room.”
“You texted me every day and never even asked about the project. Always ‘hey.’ I never understood why.”
“I told you. I couldn’t breathe otherwise.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Yeah, it is.”
My thumbs settled beside his hip bones, and my fingers dipped underneath his shirt. Pressing his forehead against mine, he let out a soft sound. I leaned forward, but he turned his head.
I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I had him here, right in front of me with my hands on him, and he wasn’t pulling away. If he would just open up for me, drop that armor so we could face each other with no reservations, maybe we could move forward.
If he didn’t want to kiss me, that was okay, and if he still didn’t want me, then I guess that was okay too. But I had to try because even a small chance to fix this was worth it.
“I fought what I was starting to feel for you,” I said. “I’d been doing that for so long, but with you, it was different. How did you break through all of my walls without even trying?”
“Because I’m nice.”
“And I’m an asshole, so . . .”
I moved my hands to his abs and pushed him against the wall. One of his arms circled my waist, keeping me close. We were both breathing heavily just from touching each other.
