Page 158 of The Secret We Keep
I should tell her.Fuck. My head spins.
“Morgan.”
“No, Paddy. I can’t do this anymore.”
I take her hand in mine, but she snatches it back harshly.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Her eyes dart up. “Making me feel stupid.”
I frown at her. “I didn’t want you to feel stupid.”
“Well, you did.”
My gaze drops. This isn’t the right place to tell her what’s going on. But I need to give her something. Some slither of the truth that’s going to help her see why giving in to our needs would be so fucking disrespectful of me. I can’t do that to her. I won’t.
“Listen…” I manage to hold her gaze. “There are some things you need to know.”
“About you?” she counters quickly, pulling an over-sized T-shirt from her bag.
I shake my head as she pushes her arms through each hole, leaving off her bra. Her hair’s tangled wildly on top of her head, and she scrapes it off her face with an accompanying blow of her breath.
My heavy sigh has her glancing up at me before she grabs a fresh pair of knickers. Without looking at me, she slides them up her legs. “I know what you’re doing here, Paddy. You’ve been weird with me for the past week.”
I balk. “Weird with you?”
The waistband of her knickers snaps against her hips. “Like you’re scared I might break or something.”
She’s right. And it kills me.
Moving to the edge of the bed, I try to stay calm as she slides her jeans up her legs, fastening the button and pulling up the zip quickly.
“I’m looking out for you. That’s all.”
Standing with her socks in one hand, she deadpans me. “Looking out foryourselfyou mean.”
“What?” I ask gruffly, not understanding herat all.
She plonks her behind to the bed. It makes me wonder if I should be getting dressed too, because whatever’s racing through her head makes it look like she’s about to bail. Her movements are fast and bordering on panicked.
“You know exactly what I mean.” She puts one sock on.
“No, actually, I don’t.”
Followed by the other.
“You’re doing this for you,” she says sharply. Ice cold.
“Doing what?” I place a hand on her arm, feeling the instant warmth of her skin and the familiar pang of excitement that I do whenever she’s this close to me.
“Looking after me. You’re doing it for selfish reasons.”
Is that what she thinks?
You haven’t given her anything else, what is she supposed to think?
“That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
