All Your Reasons (Crave 1)

“Have you finally lost your mind?” I ask, having no clue what he means.

“This Means War, Killers... romantic comedies I like.”

“Oh.”

“A cruise.”

“Huh?”

“A cruise would be a good holiday. You could mix it up with drinks by the pool and exploring the places the ship visits. Perfect combination, don’t you think?”

My stomach does somersaults. He’s put thought into this, and I have to admit I’m impressed. “Yes, I’d love to do a cruise one day,” I say, softly.

He smiles and leans his elbows on the table. “Now, tell me something about you that no one knows.”

I frown. “Why?”

He shrugs. “It’s the kind of shit I like to know about people. It tells me something about them.”

Maybe I’ve judged him wrong. The fact he wants to know this tells me something about him. “I almost got married when I was eighteen to a man twenty years older than me.”

Intrigue lights his face. “What stopped you?”

“We decided on the spur of the moment to do it, but we didn’t have the necessary paperwork filled out. A couple of days later, I freaked and realised I didn’t really want to marry him.”

“And you’ve never told anyone that?”

“No. Now it’s your turn.”

“A woman I slept with five years ago fell pregnant. I didn’t think I wanted the baby but was fully prepared to support her. But just before she was three months pregnant, she aborted the baby. I was surprised at how much it upset me.”

The mood between us has turned from playful and flirty to serious. I’m amazed he would tell me something so personal. Something no one else knows. “It’s funny how life turns out sometimes, isn’t it?” I murmur.

His smile is gentle, beautiful. “I believe things are meant to be. I’m yet to work out why that happened the way it did, but I know one day it’ll be made clear.”

The more he talks, the more he affects me. The more I want to open myself up to him. “I believe that, too.”

“So, we do have something in common.”

“It would seem we do,” I agree, giving him a smile in return.

“Well, thank fuck for that.”

I have to laugh. And I have to give him credit for the time he’s put into chasing me.

“So, tell me about your band,” I say, half out of interest, half out of a desire to let him convince me to take a chance on him.

“We’ve been together for ten years. I put a call out for band members when I was eighteen, and they were the dickheads who answered it. It took us about five years to really get our name out there and then we cracked the US market. Haven’t looked back.”

“I’m gathering you’re a pretty big international band, right?”

“Yeah.”

“How the hell can you get away with the stuff you do then?”

Confusion flickers in his eyes. “What stuff?”

I throw my arms out to the side. “This kind of stuff. We’ve been out a few times, and no one’s bothered you. If I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t think you were a famous rocker.”