Page 67 of Anything for You
Dorian knocked at two that afternoon.
I’d expected something far later. His arriving within a few hours of my leaving his house seemed like a good sign.
Right?
Probably?
I hoped so.
“Come in. Did you bring Bear?” I asked, looking for his best boy.
He raised a brow. “Would you still want me if I didn’t?”
I gave him an unamused look, though didn’t quite manage to look him in the eye. Was I a coward? Sure. The title fit right now, and I wouldn’t deny it. I was scared to see if he had already decided we shouldn’t be together, or that he wasn’t ready, or that he didn’t really want to give it a try. And I wouldn’t blamehim for any of it.
But I was still scared to see the answer, so I didn’t let myself. I just told him the truth to his answer. “Yes.”
He didn’t realize it now, but it really was that simple. I wanted him. With or without nightmares. With or without his adorable dog. With or without his baking skills, his military past, hisinsert whatever issues here, I wanted him.
So yeah. I was in a bad way here.
“Let me get us some waters. Have a seat on the couch.” Was I being weird? I didn’t know.
I’d done a remarkable amount of pacing around this lovely little cabin and I was no closer to knowing how things would go than miles ago when I’d started. But he was here, and I needed something to do with my hands while my pulse rate settled, so I poured two glasses of water, then dumped a bunch of bagged popcorn into a bowl.
After setting one glass in front of Dorian, I placed the bowl and my own water down. “My hospitality skills are a little lacking compared to yours. I’m sorry.”
Meeting his eyes again felt like a cardioversion. Someone should’ve yelled “clear!” before our gazes locked and every shuddering hope and dream I had for the two of us whistled to the surface of my skin.
“You never need to apologize. Ever.”
Goodness, the veracity and intensity in his voice poured over me in a thrilling wave, but I laughed, too. “That’s nonsense. I’m sure at some point I will. Maybe not about my non-gourmet snacks, though.”
He slowly shook his head, and I rolled my eyes.
His large hands pressed together, and he stared them down for a few seconds before reconnecting with me. “I want to be with you in whatever way you’ll have me.”
My stomach swooped and dived, a bird on the wing of a breeze.
“I’ll have you all the ways,” I burst out before I could censor myself.
But good thing I didn’t, because his smile stretched into that full, devastating grin that could’ve signaled the sun to rise.
“All the ways, huh?”
His expression bordered on smug, which was saying something for this man. He simply didn’t broadcast that kind of energy, but he had a hint of it today.
It filled me with a nervous, thrilling thrum, and I popped up out of my seat on the couch, resuming my pacing since apparently that was what my body wanted to do to cope today.
“I think we should lay out our concerns. Obviously, this is very, very new. We kissed once. But we’re close…” I didn’t want to have to ask—didn’t want to finish the thought with, “Aren’t we?”
He didn’t make me.
“We are. I agree. It feels like a lot more than something casual or new.”
Goodness, he was steady and certain now. I wanted insight into why, what’d changed, what paths his mind had taken to get to this point so I could follow.
“So I think we should say them out loud. It’s not that it’ll keep anything from becoming an issue, but more like it helps us understand one another when things happen.”
