Victor (Chicago Blaze 3)

I squeeze his hand. “You’re an amazing person. Please know that.”

He looks up and smiles at me. “No, you’re an amazing person. I’m not a bad guy or anything, but I’ve never been around someone like you. You see the good in everyone and everything. You laugh at yourself. You’re happy.”

“I try to be.”

Bringing my hand up to his mouth, he kisses my knuckles. “I’ve never done the relationship thing right. I was a dumbass for telling you I only wanted to be friends. I was worried I’d hurt you if we were more.” He finds my eyes and steadily holds my gaze. “I’m not anymore, though. I want to be the man you deserve, Lindy.”

I blink, and tears fall down my cheeks. I’m emotionally overwhelmed. Everything in me wishes I could hug the little boy Victor was. He’s hurting from his past, and wants something better for his future. Can I be that something better for him?

I want to. God, do I want to. But I’ve never been in a relationship. I don’t know how to navigate these types of things and more importantly, I’m not sure we’d last.

“Any woman would be incredibly lucky to have you, Victor.” I bring his hand to my lips, and this time I kiss his knuckles. “You can’t be with me just because I see how amazing you are. There are lots of women out there who will see it, too. Nice women, who will also blow you away with their looks and accomplishments.”

He knits his brows together. “I want to be with you, Lindy. You blow me away.”

“When you’re on the road, and women are throwing themselves at you, do you really think you’d want to stay true to the Concessions worker back home?”

He scowls. “You’re not just a Concessions worker. You’re Lindy. And yes.”

“Really?” There’s genuine surprise in my tone.

“I’m not looking for a quick fuck. I want the real deal. With you.” He puts a hand on my knee. “Let me take you out on a date.”

Victor has always been larger than life to me. There’s a part of me, even now, that expects someone to jump out with a hidden camera and tell me I’m on Punk’d. He’s the only man in the world who has the power to crush me, and he’s practically begging me for a date.

“I’m scared,” I admit.

“Me too.”

I melt yet again. Risky or not, I don’t think I’m capable of turning him down.

“So for now, a date,” I say cautiously. “And then we’ll see what happens.”

He grins. “I’ll take that. And can we not date anyone else, too?”

I can’t help but laugh at his question. “Well, I’ll have a very long list of suitors to let down.”

He turns serious. “Lindy, the only men in this world who aren’t crazy about you are the ones who don’t know you. I was just goddamned lucky to be the first.”

I break into a huge smile. “Thank you.”

He leans in and brushes a gentle kiss over my lips, sending a ripple of goosebumps across my skin. He cups my cheek, about to kiss me again, when I stop him.

“You have to promise me complete honesty,” I say.

“Of course. I promise.”

“I mean about me. Like if I’m bad at kissing and…you know.”

He draws back a bit, brows lowered in question. “No, I don’t know.”

I flush. “The stuff that comes after kissing?”

His brows drop even lower. “There’s stuff after kissing? You’ll have to tell me what all that is.”

I realize he’s toying with me and give him a gentle shove. “Victor, that’s not nice.”

He laughs and puts an arm around me, pulling me close. “What’s not nice?”

“Teasing me. Embarrassing me.”

He kisses the top of my head. “I can’t help it, you’re cute when you blush.”

I roll my eyes. “Unfortunately, that’s about sixty percent of the time.”

He hums a note of disapproval. “And unfortunately for me, I get hard every time I see you do it.”

I go hot all over. “When you see me blush?”

“Mm-hm. Like right now…very hard.”

“Oh.”

I’ve never even imagined that I, Belinda Boring, could give a man an erection. Unless I took extensive courses in giving blowjobs, I mean.

“Relax,” Victor says lightly. “I’m just gonna have to live with it for now, because no clothes are coming off tonight. Let’s just order some food and watch a movie.”

And we do. We watch the original Halloween and eat pizza while snuggled up on his couch. There’s kissing and teasing and even though our low-key night in is probably not a huge deal to Victor, it’s the best night of my life.

And that’s a sobering reminder of how hard the fall will hurt if this doesn’t work out.Chapter TwentyVictorKnox holds up one of his skates, scowling.

“What the hell is this? My skates haven’t been sharp all week. Is Larry hitting the bottle again?”