Page 119 of Manhattan Secret

“I resigned,” I tell him, lifting my eyes. “I ended my tenancy contract so I’m homeless and I have all my stuff here in a U-Haul. There’s nothing in Manhattan for me. Everything I want is right here.”

If I wanted a reaction from him, none come.

“This is me, putting all my eggs in the Lachlan basket. If you’ll still have me.”

A tick works maniacally in his jaw. Sexy boy. It seems weird now that I held back so long, afraid of one thing and another.

I should have been plastered to his face around the clock.

“Just like that?” He grates; eyes hard. Jaw harder.

He’s here, it’s the only positive sign I have to cling to.

Doing something I fear is the only way I’ll get out of my own way.

Lachlan is worth every scared, risky second.

“Just like that.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you.”

This he does react to; a shudder shakes his chest. And that same jaw muscle flies into a ticking frenzy. “Now you love me…”

“Loved you then, Lachie. Love you now, will always love you.” And for good measure, to show him I might be the one in the wrong here and willing to work on it for as long as is needed for me to fix it, he still needs to understand I’ll be a tigress in showing him my feelings. There’s nothing holding me back. “I love you, even if you’ve just climbed out of a bed with someone else.”

His eyes slit. He doesn’t deny or confirm.

“You tossed me out. Whose bed I’ve been in or will be in is my business, Laney.”

The pain is extraordinary hearing him say it in that cold, clinical way, but Lachlan Fierro forgets that I know how he works. I’ve seen him cut someone off dead, he’s told me of his payback stories.

He wants me to react.

Be brave. Be bold. Fight and win.

“Do you want me in someone else’s bed?”

His cold hard stare whirls through my belly, lust and rage can’t be hidden in his beautiful eyes.

“I want you back. I want us back. If you have even an ounce of forgiveness in you, that means you don’t climb into any other bed from now on, Lachlan. You can be mad at me as much as you want, punish me with your cold attitude, I draw the line at standing by while you have a revolving door on your bedroom.”

“Bossy aren’t you, for someone who came to beg me to take you back.”

“Yeah, I am. I’m finally living. My boyfriend taught me to go for what I want and I am. No girls, Lachlan.”

I notice everything about him in the next minute. The food forgotten; my stomach is the least of my worries. He’s hard, unyielding, staring at me.

But he’s still here.

Someone uninterested in giving me a chance would have left, told me to get out of town. Something to let me know he doesn’t want me.

He’s here, my heart keeps reminding me and I hold onto that tightly.

When Lachlan moves like the wind, bringing him in front of me in seconds, down on the balls of his feet, putting us on eye level, both his arms spread on the bed on either side of my legs—he nearly makes me topple the full 16 oz cup of slush all over myself.

“You want me back do you?” Unable to breathe, I nod, mesmerized in his face. “Think you deserve a chance?” Again, I nod, biting my lip to which his gaze drops to my mouth. “You assume I still want you, Delaney.”

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