Page 77 of The Mistakes I've Made
“Why were you at my house tonight, Lani?”
It was the first time he’d ever called me by that name. I liked the way it sounded on his tongue.
But it didn’t change the fact that he’d been with someone else tonight.
“I wanted to run some things by you. You know, for the hotel.”
His eyes followed the curve of the ceiling before finding mine once again. A knowing smile spread across his face as he took another step or two. It was like being stalked by a lion.
“You wanted to run some things by me? At nearly eight o’clock in the evening?”
I shrugged, trying to play it off. “Sure. Why not?”
“How did you get my address?”
I swallowed down the lump in my throat. “Molly.”
“And the car?” he asked. “You never answered who it belongs to.”
I took a few more steps back until my butt hit the corner of the desk I’d set up. “Also Molly’s,” I said. “Shouldn’t you know that? You seem to know everything about everyone.”
He grinned, ignoring my question entirely. Of course he knew who’s car it was.
Jerk.
“And you just came over to…how did you put it? Run some things by me?”
“Yes,” I answered. “Exactly.”
He took one last step forward, his body pressing against mine. I should push him away, but I didn’t.
I should hate him, but I couldn’t.
He leaned in close, so close that I could feel his breath against my skin. “I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Sierra is just a friend; a friend who is getting over a hard breakup and needed a night away from her grandparents’.”
I didn’t believe him. “Then why did you look so guilty when you saw me?”
His face blanched. “It wasn’t guilt you saw, Leilani. It was fear.”
“Fear?”
“I thought I could follow the rules with you because you pushed me away. You didn’t want this. You didn’t want me. I was a distraction, and you were only asking for friendship. But when I saw you standing at my doorstep, I knew this thing between us, it was real and—”
“And?”
“It scared me.”
“It scared me, too,” I confessed.
“But you know what scared me more?” he whispered, his voice so smooth that my heart did a somersault in my chest.
“What?” I breathed out.
“Watching you walk away.”
His words made my breath catch in my throat, and looking up at him, I felt the air suddenly change between us. Just like the storm raging on outside, something was building between us.
Something big.
