“Answer me.”
“The second one,” I murmur.
“Then he isn’t the one for you.”
He doesn’t release his hold, and when I catch his eyes dropping down to my mouth, I ask a question that’s been eating me alive for years. One that, under normal circumstances, I’d never be able to utter. “And who is the one for me?”
The golden flecks in his eyes dim before being covered by his heavy lids. It’s weird. Like the slow blink didn’t just break our eye contact, but our connection as well, closing the door on this conversation and locking it up tight.
Dropping his hand from my chin, he runs his fingers through his thick, dark hair before shaking his head in defeat.
“I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later.”
Confused, my brows tug down at the center, wrinkles lining my forehead. “What? You’re seriously just leaving?”
“I shouldn’t have come by tonight.” With his hand on my bicep, he guides me away from blocking the exit as I stand there dumbfounded with the entire situation.
“What’s going on, Levi?” I press.
He shakes his head. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I just…I gotta go.”
Then he disappears, leaving me reeling from the conversation.
What the hell was that?
Chapter Twenty
Levi
“Dude. Where were you last night?” Conner asks, crowding my cubicle like he owns the damn thing.
Funny. He’s been doing that a lot lately.
Squeezing the pen in my grip until I’m sure it’ll snap in two, I envision it being Conner’s neck. My mouth quirks with a ghost of a smile before disappearing.
If only.
It takes everything inside of me to release a deep breath from my lungs before I consciously ease the pressure around the pen. However, the petty side of me can’t stand to look at him, so I continue to scribble a bunch of nonsense on a report I’m sure I’ll have to redo as soon as the asshat leaves me alone.
“I went to my mom’s last night,” I mutter, addressing his question from seconds ago when what I really want to say is, back the hell off. After a few tense seconds, I add, “Didn’t know how long you’d need the privacy.” My tone has an edge that I’m sure he notices. That is until he opens his stupid mouth.
“Unfortunately, I think you spooked her when you dropped in. Charlie wouldn’t let me touch her after that. Hell, it was like your interruption turned her into a damn ice queen.”
My jaw tightens as I drop the blue ballpoint pen onto my desk. Chest puffing up, I stand to my full height, towering over Conner’s five-foot-eleven frame with my six-foot-two one.
“Don’t talk about her like that.” My voice is like ice.
“Like what?”
“Like she’s a fucking object.”
“What?” He shakes his head, confused. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. The deal’s off. I said yo
u could date her; I didn’t say you could fuck her.”
“What the hell do you think dating means, Levi? Yeah. I like her, but you can’t honestly think I wasn’t going to try to sleep with her. I’m a guy. I’m gonna wanna get my dick wet at one—”