Page 58 of On the Line
“No, because if I don’t bring it up while you’re too tired from sex to fight me, we’ll never get anything accomplished.”
She tilted her head back to glare at him. “I can assure you I am not too tired to fight you.”
Mitch rolled his eyes. “You are exhausting, and we’re having this conversation whether you like it or not.”
“Fine,” she said, awkwardly crossing her arms over her body despite being on her side and smushed up against him. “You can talk. That doesn’t mean I’ll have anything to say.”
“Look…” he said, unsure of how to begin. It had been a very long time since he’d had a conversation like this, and this might be the most important of them all. There had never been so much on the line. If he couldn’t get Lexie to see his side of things and understand that even if they hadn’t officially labeled anything, they were as-good-as in a relationship, he didn’t know what he would do. Because if this conversation didn’t go well, he would likely lose her completely.
And that was unacceptable.
“I’m just gonna say it. I’m crazy about you. And this,” he gestured between their naked bodies, “isn’t enough for me anymore, and I think you feel the same.”
“I don’t,” she said, propping herself on her elbow to turn away from him, but Mitch held fast, wrapping his arm tighter around her. She wasn’t going to get away that easy.
“And I don’t believe you.” He sat up and rolled so she was trapped under him. “Lexie, this hasn’t been just sex for us in a long time. It’s been seven months since we met. Why are you still lying to yourself? And me? You’re only hurting us both right now, honey,” he said, tracing his fingers along her cheekbone and jaw.
“Because I don’t know how to do this!” She shoved him so abruptly that the sheer surprise of it had Mitch sitting back on his heels, giving her the opening she needed to put some distance between them.
“And you think I do?”
“I think you’re a lot better at deeply emotional relationships than I am,” she whispered, hanging her head.
Hopping off the bed, Mitch moved so he was standing in front of her, struck by how strange it was to have such a serious conversation when they were both completely naked.
But if that’s what it took to make this woman his girlfriend, hiseverything, then so be it.
“Lexie, honey,” he said, scooping her hair out of her face and lifting her chin to gaze into the golden depths of her eyes. “We’ve been doing this relationship thing for months without putting the actual label on it. You realize that, don’t you?”
Lexie shook her head violently, sending her dark hair flying, disagreeing with him without ever opening her mouth.
Mitch blew out a long, exasperated sigh, then reached for her. He trailed the fingers of his left hand over the jut of her cheekbone and across the edge of her jaw, sliding down the smooth column of her neck. He ran them over the sharp line of her collarbone and slope of her shoulder, along the soft skin of her arm, and chuckled when she shivered under his touch.
Lightly, he grasped her wrist between his thumb and forefinger and pulled her flush against him, using his right hand to tip her chin up, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Lexie,” he tried again. “I want to give this thing a real shot, and I think you do, too.”
She stared at him for a long, tense breath, eyes belying her anxiety. She tried to turn her face away, but he held fast. “I don’t know how,” she said again, quieter this time, the words a plea.
Show me, her eyes begged him.
“But?” He prompted.
“But I want you,“ she whispered, ”in any way I can have you.”
A smile threatened to tug the corners of his lips up, but he resisted the urge. Leaning closer, he pressed his forehead against hers, he said, “You can have all of me. It’s already yours.”
She leaned back, and her gaze softened on his.
Hope bloomed in his chest, wild and unbidden.
“Okay,” Lexie finally said.
“Okay?”
She nodded. “Just…don’t ask for too much too soon, okay? It took me seven months to agree to be your…”
“My what?”
She released a frustrated sigh, her breath warming his chest, right above his heart. “Your girlfriend, Mitch. I’m your girlfriend. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
