Page 229 of The Invite
“Am I that easy to read?”
“I know you inside out.”
I push down the guilt at all the secrets I’m keeping from him. I’m soon distracted as he whips off his black tee.
“I heard you had an uninvited guest.” He hums casually.
I lean back on my elbows, my nipples pebbling under his hot gaze, and nonchalantly retort, “Maverick, you mean?”
A sharp pinch twists my thigh and I yelp.
“Ace is a friend, August,” I huff. “He came to check on me. That’s all.”
His gaze sharpens. “And offered you to stay at his place.”
“That’s what friends do.”
“If I wasn’t in the picture, would you fuck him?”
“What?” I wheeze, taken aback by the out-of-field question. “Of course not.”
“He’s handsome.”
“Still no.”
“You’re not denying he’s handsome.”
“August!” I groan at his jealous tone, and sit up. “I findyouhandsome. You’re the one who makes my heart race. My body is a damn slave for you and I pretty much told you to ink your name on me, even though needles scare the shit out of me.”
His lips stretch wide in a full-blown smile that he seldom offers.
While I’m panting hard after my little speech.
Shoving me back on the mattress, he straddles my waist and cages me in with his hands on either side of my head. “Iamin love with you.”
A choking noise escapes my mouth and I blink at him.
“I looked it up today,” he confesses boyishly, making every organ in my body work overtime. “One definition caught my attention. It says love is irrational, an explosive chemical reaction, and it comes when you least expect it and with in the most unexpected person. Being obsessive to the point of being in their arms and making your demons dance with theirs. If that’s love, then I have fallen for you, Nessa, from the moment I met you.”
Oh, how he’s breaking my heart and piecing it back together at the same time.
“You love me?” I say in between hiccups. My emotions are all over the place. His sweet confession repeating in my mind. While the intense passion in his eyes threatens to drown me.
“I know you’re worried I’m incapable of it. But you’re wrong.” A sad smile laces his mouth and his expression is lost. “I simply don’t know what love is, Nessa. The only kind I’ve experienced is fatherly love from my dad and those memories are fading day by day. I wish he were alive so I could ask him what it’s like for a man to fall in love with a woman. He had all the answers. Internet was the next best thing.”
“It’s not always right,” I murmur.
Nuzzling his nose against mine, he kisses a stray teardrop. “Then I’ll make my own version of love for you, little prey. To show you you’re the only woman for me.”
“Youhaveshown me, August.” I trace the tattoo on his neck. “I feel your version of love in every action of yours. It’s the most beautiful and perfect kind. I believe it when you say you love me. And I love you too, with every fiber of my being.”
He swallows. “All of me?”
“All of you.”
“Even the monstrous me?”
“Especially him.”
