Page 28 of Dream (Fighting Fate)

His flustering helped. So did his obvious discomfort.

“I’m serious, Liv. You have to help me out here. I don’t know what I said that upset you.”

I stared him down. “I’m not stupid, Josh. If you don’t want anything to happen between us, just say so. I know guys want girls who know what they’re doing—girls who have experience, so you can just say it. I’m not going to melt into a ball of sobbing snot.”

He recoiled, a little taken aback by my words. “Liv, that’s not what I meant at all. And you’re wrong. Guys don’t just want girls who know what they’re doing. To be honest with you, it’s your innocence that makes it virtually impossible for me to stay away from you.”

His words sent my mind scrambling. Everything he was saying and doing was completely contradictory. “Wait, so you actually want something to happen between us?”

He sighed. “I shouldn’t.”

“But you do?”

“Of course I do,” he said, turning his hands palm up. “Isn’t it obvious? I can’t keep my hands off you, even when I try to!”

My God, he was confusing. “But you said nothing can happen between us.”

“Exactly!”

I drew in a steadying breath, struggling not to flat-out punch him. “Okay, so tell me again why you think nothing can happen between us, because I have no idea what the hell is going on here anymore.”

A crease formed between his brows as he thought about his answer. “Because I don’t want to hurt you, Liv.”

“How would you hurt me, Josh?”

Confusion flashed through his eyes. He shifted on his feet. “Because if we start something, it can’t go anywhere.”

My eyes narrowed, irritation rising again. Pushing it back down, I raised my chin a fraction. “Let me get this straight. You’re saying that if anything happens between us romantically, I’m going to be hurt when it ends? Because I’m inexperienced with these things?”

He shifted again, unease flickering in his eyes. “Right.”

“So, you’re deciding nothing can happen?”

“I—” he started, but his mouth snapped closed when he met my gaze again.

“No,” I said, straightening my shoulders.

Confusion made him pause. “No?”

I stepped forward and pressed a finger to his chest. “You don’t get to decide that for me. If you have another reason why you don’t want anything to happen, then that’s fine, but you don’t get to decide what’s best for me. That’s my job, and mine alone. I may be inexperienced, Josh, but I’m not some princess who has no clue when it comes to how things work. Neither of us lives here. It’s quite obvious that when you leave, I’ll never see you again. I haven’t got it in my head that some big whirlwind romance is going to happen here and we’ll live happily ever after. To be honest, I’ve got no idea what will happen at all. It’s called spontaneity. You take every moment as it comes and choose to be happy. That’s it.”

Josh stared at me, eyes wide and lips slightly parted with shock. My pulse raced, adrenaline pumping. Three heartbeats later, his lips crashed down on mine, his hands cupping my face, holding me to him as though he was frightened I would disappear.

When he finally broke the kiss, he rested his forehead against mine and tried to catch his breath. “What the hell are you doing to me, Liv? I’ve never had so much trouble staying away from anyone in my life.”

“It’s probably my lack of fashion sense,” I said, just as out of breath as he was. “It was always going to be a guy magnet.”

Raising his face to the sky, he pulled me into his chest, laughing softly into the air. “I think there might be more to it than that.” Leaning back, he looked down at me with kind eyes. “I know you said you like to take each moment as it comes, but I need you to understand that I still need to be careful with you. You’re special, Liv. You’re beautiful and kind and pure. Whether you want to see that or not. And I refuse to let myself take advantage of that.”

“You can’t take advantage of it if I’m aware of it and say I want it too,” I countered.

His expression withered. “Liv, don’t. It doesn’t help my cause.”

I grinned. “Exactly.”

Rolling his eyes, he pulled me into him. “You’re incorrigible. Let’s go back up to the house and watch a damn movie before you weaken my mind any more.”

As I took his hand and we moved back up to the house, I thought about where that left me now. I may have told him I preferred to take it a day at a time, but, in a way, he was right. I needed to have it clear in my head how this was going to end. Looking at it from a place of sensibility, Aunt Jenny was right. A little summer romance was the perfect scenario. It would give me my first taste of romance, without worrying about the disappointment of failure, or the expectation of future possibilities.

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