Page 69 of Those Who Are Bound

“You knocked me out the second I saw you; you may as well have taken a swing at me with your gloves,” he said honestly. “I had to get to know you. You excited and intrigued me. Scratch that—you excite and intrigue me—present tense. Yes, I’d planned to go back to Oregon, and yes, those plans have changed, but there are no expectations; these are my choices. I’ve been trying to be clear.”

She gave a small nod. “You have been.”

Jonah cocked his head. “I asked you at the gym, what are you afraid of?”

Hurting you, disappointing you, seeing the repulsion in your eyes, watching you leave, or worse—watching you fade away.

“I don’t know that it’s fear,” she responded.“Just… caution, maybe?”

“About?”

Elliott shrugged. “You know my track record; how long it’s been, even. I’m easing into the water while you seem to have plunged right in.”

“I got an awesome girlfriend out of it already, so… yeah, the plunging method works for me.”

Elliott laughed softly.

He sobered. “I don’t call inviting me to bed on our first date easing in.”

Elliott returned her attention to her beer, her humor fading.

“No,” he said, reaching out and redirecting her attention back to him with a knuckle under her chin. “That wasn’t a judgment. If it was, I’d have to judge myself for wanting to go with you. And kicking myself for not.”

She searched his face; he was being honest. She responded, “Sometimes that’s easier.”

His brows furrowed. “You’re right; sex is easier than intimacy. But I want both.”

Elliott pulled away from his touch gently.

“That’s not what you meant.”

She raised a shoulder. “It’s… you had said it: you were planning on leaving. At least get that satisfaction, for both of us, before you…”

Jonah watched her a minute before he finished her sentence, “Go?”

Her chest tightened.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Yet.

“Everyone leaves,” she said quietly. It was a statement of fact, not self-pity.

He stared at her. “Did you just become my girlfriend and break up with me in less time than it takes to make a pizza?”

Startled, she looked back at him. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Good, because I’m staying.”

“You can’t promise that,” she pointed out; not accusingly, just pragmatically.

Jonah leaned forward, bracing his other arm on the back of her chair, his chest to her shoulder as he said in her ear, dropping his voice, “No. No one can promise they’ll never leave. But right here, right now, I have no intention of going away. I’ll say it as many times as you need to hear it.”

She turned her head toward him, their lips close to touching, the electricity surging between them. “I’m not that needy.”

“No, not needy,” he confirmed. “Unsure. I get it. My decision to stay isn’t meant to put pressure on you in any way.” His lips tipped up slightly. “And if you meant to use sex as a hook…”

Her brows briefly furrowed as she replied honestly, “It’s what I know.”

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