Page 95 of Undeniably Corrupt
I choke on a laugh. “That’s worth being a good boy for.”
She smiles. “Where were you today that you came home so early?”
“Maine.”
She tenses, her smile falling faster than Niagara. “Oh. To see your parents?”
“Yes. Only it didn’t work out.”
She nods and stands, shutting me down, and what the fuck are you hiding, Liora? Why won’t you just tell me?
I stand too now that my balls don’t feel like they’re about to shrivel up and fall off me. “Do you want to go out for dinner?”
“Dinner?”
“You’re repeating me again. Yes. You know. Food. It’s a Saturday night. We should go out to eat. I won’t even object if you go looking like a cast member fromCats.”
“You’re cute.”
“I know. So are you, and I’m not even teasing you.” I wrap my arms around her. “Be with me tonight. Don’t say no. Go out to dinner with me and think about what else we could do later and tomorrow and next week and next year. Because, Liora? I don’t just want you. I hurt with how much I need you.”
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Ihurt with how much I need you.
Those words have been burned into my brain all evening. All through Mexican food and a large margarita I had to take the edge off it. Newsflash: It didn’t work.
I hurt with how much I need you.
I’m starting to feel it’s the same for me with him.
“You seemed like you had fun today,” Vander whispers as we shut the door to Hazel’s bedroom. We got home late. Like an hour ago. Hazel was so wiped, she passed out in the car. Vander carried her inside and helped me change her into her pajamas and tuck her into bed.
I’m a little drunk from the one margarita I drank—yes, I’m a total lightweight—and a lot overwhelmed. I’m finding it harder and harder to remember all the reasons why Vander isn’t the guy. Why he’s someone I need to run from, not toward.
“I did. Dinner was great. Thank you again.”
He gives me a sideways grin as he takes my hand and leads me back downstairs. My room is right there. Right across the hall from Hazel’s, and I should go in there and go tobed, but I’m not. I’m allowing Vander to guide me wherever he wants. I’m saying yes. Even if it’s just for tonight.
“I think it’s safe to say I’d buy you and Hazel dinner every night if you’d let me.”
“Complicated.”
“It is. I guess. I don’t know. I’m kind of over that.”
“Meaning?” I raise my eyebrows at him as we continue past the second floor back down to the first.
“Meaning my world feels different when you’re in it. It feels different when I’m around you. I like it better. It’s the life I’d like to have.”
Fuck. Holy freaking fucking hell.
“Vander—”
“Do you not?”
“I do,” I admit. “That’s what scares me. You’re a walking red flag, and I’m the girl who doesn’t want to be vulnerable to a man ever again. Especially one who’s already broken my heart.”
It’s not even that simple. It’s far more complicated than that. Because truth be told, I think I’m the red flag. It’s not the single mother piece. It’s the psycho father who will kill if necessary thing. Life was oddly easier and less complicated when I was dancing in a club, working as a CAN, and getting through school than it is living here and working with Vander.
