Page 147 of Revelation

“But what were his exact words?”

She shifts her weight. “He said I’m not ‘marriage material.’”

I close my eyes and shake my head. I’m an idiot. This is Kat’s Achilles’ heel—her Kryptonite—and I’ve served it up to her on a silver platter.

“Listen to me, babe.” I grab her shoulders and look into her eyes. “I never said I don’t wanna be with you eight weeks from now. All I said was I can’t make promises about the future. But that’s onlybecause nothing’s for surein life—it has nothing to do with you, personally. That’s a factual statement. Anything can happen. But right now do Iwantto be with you? Yes. So bad it hurts—that’s why I came to Seattle early.”

Yet another battery of tears springs into her beautiful blue eyes.

“Kat, please, trust me. I’m crazy about you. It’s just that, except when it comes to business, I take things a day at a time. It’s all I can handle—” I have to stop. If I say anymore, I’m gonna lose it. My eyes are burning.

“I don’t wanna be some kind of glorified booty call,” she says softly.

“What? Did you hear a word I said? I think maybe you’re clinically insane. Or maybe you’re PMSing or something because that’s the furthest thing—”

She makes a sound that can only be described as prehistoric, making me stop dead in my tracks.

“I’mnotPMSing! I’m crying because you hurt my frickin’feelings—not because I have ovaries. You’re the one who can’t imagine dating me fifty-two freakin’ days from now, so don’t try to worm out of your assholery by playing the PMS card!”

Her nostrils are flaring. Her eyes are wild. She looks like a fucking dragon.

“Oh my fucking God,” I say. “You’re overreacting. Again.”

“No, I’m not overreacting. You didn’t tell the girl you’re supposedly‘addicted to’ you’re moving to her frickin’ city in eight weeks! How’d you expect me to find out? By bumping into you at Whole Foods?”

I look up to the sky, biting my lip. She’s pissing me off. I should have told her, yes, but she’s making mountains out of molehills. “Yes, Kat. You guessed it,” I say. “I was gonna wait to tell you until after we’d bumped into each other at Whole Foods.”

She abruptly turns around and marches away from me. “I’m going home,” she says.

I roll my eyes at her backside. Her purse and phone are inside the bar and I’m the one who drove her here. How the fuck does she plan to go home?Déjà fucking vu.We might as well be in another hotel hallway right now. For a split second, the image of her dripping wet ass cheeks stomping down the hallway after Reed’s party flashesacross my mind and I smile. She’s a handful, this one—never a dull moment.

“Wait,” I command.

She doesn’t wait.

“Wait.”

“Enjoy living in Seattle,” she tosses back to me over her shoulder. “Hope you havefun.”

“Oh my God. The drama,” I say. In five easy strides, I’ve caught up to her. I grab her shoulders and turn her around and kiss her. Without hesitation, she presses herself into me, throws her arms around my neck, and surrenders to me.

I always say, when it comes to women, especially angry ones, there’s very little that can’t be fixed with a fucking awesome kiss.

We stand together, kissing like crazy for several minutes, both of us bursting with desire and emotion and arousal.

“I just don’t understand why you didn’t tell me,” she whispers, abruptly pulling away from me. “I would have been bursting at the seams to tell you if the situation were reversed. You would have been the first person I would have called.”

My heart drops into my toes. When she puts it like that, I suddenly understand why she’s so upset. “Babe,” I say. “I’m just not wired to make promises about the future, that’s all. My brain doesn’t work like a normal person’s.”

“I’m not asking for promises about thefuture—you think eight weeks from now is ‘the future’?” Kat shakes her head and steps back from our embrace. “I’m not thinking clearly. You kiss me and I lose my mind. That’s always been my problem around you. I’m so physically attracted to you, I can’t think.” She rubs her forehead. “I think we need to take a step back. Slow things down. I think we need to find out if we actually like each other in real life. Obviously, you’re scared shitless this thing between us won’t translate to living in the same city—and maybe you’re right.” She swallows hard. “Maybe we should trust your gut.”

“What?”

“We’ve been living in a weird sort of fantasy from day one,” she continues. “First we were in Las Vegas doing ourOcean’s Eleventhing and now we fly to see each other on weekends so we can role-play imaginary-pornos and get stoned. Everything with us is nonstopexcitement—fantasy. We never do normal, real-life stuff like play a board game or go to the freakin’ grocery store.” She shrugs. “Maybe you’re just addicted to excitement, and not to me, specifically. Maybe none of this is real.”

My blood is pulsing in my ears. “Kat, no. Everything I’ve ever said or done when I’m with you is real. Always. Even our fantasies are real—that’s what’s so awesome about us—real life is a fantasy when it comes to you and me.”

“Your move to Seattle is for sure?” she asks softly.

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