Why can’t I just learn to stay away from her? Why didn’t I let her go back to her room? I move closer but she moves two steps back. “I never said you were a mistake. I said the kiss was.”
“It’s the same thing,” she says quietly, refusing to meet my eyes.
“It’s not the same thing. You could never be a mistake to me, Odette, but I don’t want to be something that burns out your light.” Involuntarily I take a few steps forward, space between us eliminated with those few steps.
Odette shakes her head like I’m being foolish. “You could never do that.”
“You don’t know that. You don’t know me.”
“I see you, Tillman. I know your past is dark and you think you’re beyond the point of saving, but I see so much more than that. If you truly think you haven’t redeemed yourself at this point then you might never believe differently, but I will. I’ll believe it enough for both of us... if you’ll let me.” Her tiny hands ball into fists, she’s looking for something to grab onto, but it isn’t until now that I realized I’m shirtless with just my sleep pants on. Her hands land on my bare chest, electricity shoots off through my body. “You have to let me, Tillman.”
One look into Odette’s eyes and I’m gone. My mind gives up the war, white flag of surrender waving. My hands tangle in her hair as I bring my mouth down on hers. Two souls crashing, searching for one another, a safe place to land and call home. The moment our lips meet, my entire soul sighs in contentment. The thing I don’t deserve is also the place I call home. Odette is all I’ve been looking for in this life and she was here in Los Angeles all along.