“A little bit?” Laughter danced in his eyes. “How can you be a little bit in love with someone?”
“Well, see, it’s like this.”
“You’re still too stubborn to admit it.”
“Stubborn has a very negative connotation.”
“But accurate, nonetheless.”
“Oh, my God, fine!” I huffed, folding my arms across my chest. “Fine. Yes, I feel the same. I’m pretty much in love with you, too, and that’s why I ended what we had.”
Colton frowned. “You love me, so you essentially broke up with me.”
“Yes.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense.”
“In what universe?”
“This one, unless I’m randomly coexisting in a different one to you.”
“I’m starting to think you might be.”
I fixed him with a look. “Don’t make me withhold cuddling again.”
He snatched me into him before I could escape, and he literally pinned me against his body. He was so much stronger than I was. I had no choice but to laugh and attempt to wriggle my way free.
“You can’t do that anymore,” he warned me.
“I most certainly can!”
“You can try.”
I squirmed and wriggled.
“I’m holding you until you explain what the hell was going on in your head last week.”
I sighed, giving up my attempts at escape for a moment. “I didn’t think you felt the same way as me. Kinsley told me I had to either evolve or end it. I couldn’t keep going the way we were. It was driving me insane, and I really thought you liked Cora, so I ended it.”
“And now?”
“What about now?”
“Now that you know how I feel about you, what are you doing? Are you going to evolve it? Or end it?”
I tilted my head back and met his eyes. “I think you know the answer to that.”
He lowered his head and kissed me. “Good choice. We’re going to talk about you not seeing how I feel, but for now, I have another idea.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You do?”
“Yep.” He grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the stairs, and my stomach fluttered. “We’re going to cuddle… in about thirty minutes or so.”
CHAPTER TWELVE – TORI
rule twelve: don’t open the messages with a picture attachment.
“How did you not guess?”
I tilted my head back at looked at Colton. “I just didn’t. I think I was too busy trying to convince myself that I needed to stop having feelings for you to notice what was going on.”
“I thought it was obvious.”
“Nope. Not to me.”
“I wanted to cuddle. I sent you pizza randomly.”
“Colton, those things were so infrequent. How could I possibly guess from that alone? Cuddling always happened after sex, and pizza was after we’d been texting. Plus that’s about the only way we’ve ever been able to have a real conversation.”
“Because we always argue.”
“Did we argue because we hated each other or because we wanted each other?”
He frowned. “Hated each other, right? That’s how it works.”
“I read about it all the time. In books.”
“No. I thought you read about it on Twitter.”
“There is an overwhelming amount of hate on Twitter, but no, not there.” I poked his bare chest. “Enemies to lovers books.”
“We weren’t enemies. Were we?”
“We’ve never really been friends,” I reasoned. “Ever. I don’t think we’ve gotten along for at least fifteen years.”
“And now we’re cuddling.”
“Ugh.”
Colton laughed and pulled me into his side so I looped my leg over his body. “What do we do now? I suppose we have to tell everyone.”
“Do we, though?”
“Yes.”
“Damn it.” I sighed. “What is this?”
“What’s what?”
“This. Us. It seems irresponsible of us to jump into a full-fledged relationship given our track record with each other.”
He clicked his tongue a few times. “We have done this backward. Created a relationship where we’re essentially in love but can’t stand the sight of one another.”
“That is the best summarization of our relationship I have ever heard. It was beautiful.”
His body shook with a breathy laugh. “Pure poetry, I know.”
“You should write a book.”
“I think I’ll pass on that one.”
“I would. It wasn’t that great, really.”
“You are magical for the ego.”
“I know.” I grinned. “I guess we could start by just spending time together. Weirdly enough, we’ve never done that.”
“Because we always bickered.”
“Damn it. If we’re in a relationship, does that mean we can’t bicker anymore? Pissing you off is one of my favorite hobbies. Now I’m going to have to take up running or knitting or something.”
He shuddered. “No, we’ll still bicker. Don’t stop pissing me off. It’ll work in your favor.”
“How so?”
“Angry sex. Make up sex. More sex in general.”
“Not a terrible proposition,” I mused. “Okay, we can do that. We already know it works in the bedroom.”
“What about everyone else? How are we around them?”
“Act natural,” I said after a moment. “If you want to put your arm around me, put your arm around me.”
“And if you want to sucker punch me?”
“I’ll sucker punch you.”
“Seems reasonable.”
I laughed, pressing my face into his neck. “This is so freaking stupid. We’re acting like we’re in high school and dating for the first ever time.”