Page 95 of Protect Me
A pinch confirmed that I hadn’t imagined it.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “What?”
Amusement and fear appeared in a quick smile at the same time. He leaned closer, his hand dropping on top of mine.
“Kate, I’m crazy about you. I wanted you to know because . . . dancing around it seems so silly. We’ve lived together for months and I’ve been fighting it and I can’t anymore. Emma made me realize that none of what I felt for her or anyone else was real. What I feel around youisreal. I love you.”
The textured shadows of his hand, so heavy on mine, felt like an anchoring weight. A musky smell drifted off him, making it impossible to breathe without the smell of Vikram twined throughout.
Everything swirled around, tightening my chest, until a gentle finger on my chin jerked me free. Vikram tilted my head back, peering into my eyes.
“Kate?”
“Yes?”
“It’s okay, whatever you say.”
Tears welled up. Disbelief burst through all the questions, all the barriers to tackle. After it, a heady euphoria followed. Sweet baby pineapple, but he’d just said the words I’d waited to hearall my life. The little girl’s dreams that carried me through the darkness of my aunt’s house played out with starting clarity.
My lips rolled together. He’d given me honesty, and I yearned to do the same. No matter how frightening.
“Vik, I’ve loved you since I was ten.”
This time,hiseyes widened. An astonished pause, and then a raspy, “What?”
A giggle escaped me at our interchanging reactions. Would we always surprise each other?
“Ten,” I whispered.
“That’s when you moved into your aunt’s house next door.”
Another nod.
Vik leaned back, which broke our hands apart. The space gave me room to breathe, but I monitored him carefully. Would this freak him out in return? Such honesty would certainly test his resolve. If he really meant what he’d said, my truth should delight him.
“That first day I moved in? I met you first, then Vini. Vini and I became inseparable friends and I loved you from the sidelines all my life.”
The sushi lay abandoned between us as I rubbed my sweaty palms along my jeans, eager to get this out. Now that the knot had uncoiled, I wanted it to whip free. Flap around.
Reveal it all.
Not even the crystalline vulnerability of revealing myself so openly could frighten me now. Freedom. He’d offered me a chance to unload the truth and stop hiding.
“I was sort of pathetic about it,” I said through a miserly laugh, ignoring his dazed expression. A glazed look swept over his face, as if he sorted back through the memories with a magnifying glass.
“You were so shy around me,” he murmured. “Is that why?”
“Partly. A lot of my reticence had to do with my aunt and the environment she raised me in. Mostly, though? My crush on you. It developed over the years, growing every single day. Sometimes it felt like a thing inside me that I couldn’t control.”
Vik blinked his sooty lashes.
“If that’s truly how you felt, I wanted you to know everything. The truth, I suppose. Vini knows how I feel about you, but only recently. Your parents have no idea, as far as I can tell.”
“Is this an in-the-past kind of thing?”
My heart quivered. “No,” I whispered.
He frowned. “Is that why you hesitated to move in with me?”
