“Tell me something. Would you be here right now if you weren’t bored? Wouldn’t you be on some race track in Florida or God knows where?”
“Daytona already happened.”
“I don’t know the races, Gage. Pick another one. Any one that you would be at this spring and summer.” Her eyes flashed and her hands fisted at her sides.
“Would you have told me?”
The fact that I had to ask her made my chest ache. Would she really keep it from me?
“Since I literally just thought of it, I can’t answer that.”
“I think you just did.”
“What do you want me to say?” She sliced her hand through the air. “We were together once.”
“Twice,” I reminded her.
“And neither time was supposed to mean anything serious.”
“Maybe not to you.”
The anger knitting her brows cleared into shock. “What?”
I tried to control the fear and anger growing in my chest. I’d already been wound up about her kicking me out the other day. I couldn’t stop thinking about her and for once, it wasn’t only because I was using the wrong head.
She was exciting and intelligent and her mouth made me nuts. Not just when it came to kissing her or tasting her, but the crazy things she said. But the idea that she could be having my kid…
Everything stilled inside of me.
Maybe I was being given a second chance after all. All the money in the world didn’t mean anything when I was always alone. Passing the time with a pretty girl had been fun for a long time, but only because there’d been nothing but winning burning in my brain.
Meeting Rylee that day at The Spinning Wheel had jarred something loose inside of me. Something I didn’t even realize I needed.
Someone who meant more than a sweaty night.
Maybe she didn’t see me as anything more than that. And that was the real problem. I needed to prove to her that I could be counted on.
“Even if there’s no baby, I’m not just looking for a hot fuck anymore.”
“What?”
Her startled glance told me I was on the right path. I stepped closer to her, curling my arm around her back. She was too surprised to back up right away. When she tensed, I cupped her cheek. “I’ve been trying to tell you since I got back to town that I want to spend time with you.”
“Yes, I know what you want.”
“You don’t. I mean, of course I want this.” I yanked her closer so she could see what she did to me just by being in the same room. “But I’m also not a fourteen-year-old led around by my dick.”
“As you push your hard-on into me.”
“He wants you.”
“It’s sentient?” She rested her hand on my chest, but she wasn’t pushing me back this time.
“Let’s just say he’s had a mind of his own in the past. But you’re not alone in this, Ry. Not by a long shot. And if you don’t want me—” I cleared my throat and resisted the urge to toss her over my shoulder and prove just how much that was a lie. “I’ll respect it. I’ll keep trying to change your mind, but I’ll respect it.”
She broke our gaze. “Gage—”
“Let me finish.”