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“Well, I’m not!” she yelled defensively at his back as he strode through the front yard. She hated that he made sense. Hated it. He was just a dumb boy. “I’m a disaster. You keep exposing the bad parts of me, and that’s cruel!”
“I’m not cruel to you!” he yelled, rounding on her. He jammed a finger toward the road. “To the outside world? Fuck ‘em. Fuck everyone. I’ll fight them all just for fun.” He let his hand fall to his side and he held his palms up, his eyes pleading for something she didn’t understand. “I don’t want to do that with you.”
“I don’t like you,” she said.
“That’s a fuckin’ lie. I know you can hear it.”
Lucia clenched her fists at her side and tried again. In an angry, steady voice, she growled out, “I. Don’t. Like. You.” And she meant it. In this moment, she didn’t like him. She didn’t like that he was making her feel too much. She didn’t like that he was seeing the parts of herself she’d kept so carefully hidden. He’d taken her out for one night and had dredged up everything. She said it again, and this time it sounded like the truth. “I don’t like you.”
The fire disappeared from his face and he dropped his gaze, but she’d seen the hurt on his face. Landon ran his hand over the back of his hair, head hung, and slowly shook his head back and forth.
She’d won.
He strode for her fast. So fast, she didn’t have time to respond or back into the house before he was on her. He gripped the back of her head and his lips collided with hers. It wasn’t a romantic or soft kiss. It was almost painful. So stunned was she, Lucia just stood there with her eyes open, watching his jaw move as he pushed his tongue past her lips. He pushed her back, and she didn’t even fight it as her back hit the wall. His thumb was digging into the side of her neck, and his body weight was pressed against her, and she could taste him, and she felt…she felt…
She felt.
She closed her eyes just as he pulled away, and for a three-count she didn’t open them.
When she did, he was already to his truck. “You don’t like me?” he asked as he yanked open his door. “Makes two of us. Goodnight, Lucia.”
Geeeeez. Her heart pounded so hard against her breastbone as he peeled out of her yard and his taillights disappeared over the crest of her driveway.
Truth. He didn’t like himself. She didn’t know why, but this awful feeling slithered around in her middle. What was it? Loneliness? Anger? Guilt? Maybe all three.
She’d done what she’d always done since her last relationship—the push away. Only this time, it didn’t feel like she’d won anymore.
Felt like a loss.
Go to him. There was the bear giving her broken-record advice.
Lucia ran to the shredded pile of her clothes and riffled through the scraps searching for her purse. She yanked her phone from it and sent a text as fast as her fingers could type.
Wait. Send.
She could hear the sound of the truck charging down the mountain. Straining her ears, she typed out, Please wait. Send.
He let off the gas. He wasn’t braking, but he wasn’t picking up speed. He was thinking about it.
With a gasp, she wrapped the blanket tighter around herself and bolted for the road. She ran as fast as she could, her bare feet prickling and aching across the dry grass and gravel.
She ran and ran, straight down the center of the road so she wouldn’t have to duck the branches that reached for her. Up ahead, she could see taillights. He’d stopped, and was just sitting there in his idling truck.
She could hear the click of the gears as he put the truck into park, and then turned it off. When his door opened, a wave of relief flooded her.
He stood there, his perfectly-scarred Adonis body highlighted and shadowed by the dim interior truck light that cast him in gold. The gray sweatpants hung low on his muscular hips. His hair was mussed, and his fists were clenched at his sides, and his eyes were so vulnerable…so open.
She came to a stop at the corner of his tailgate. “I don’t like you—”
“I know!”
“No…wait…” She took a deep breath in and huffed it out, wrapped the blanket tighter around herself. “I mean I don’t like that you can see me.”
For a full ten-count, he said nothing, but the fire in his eyes died little by little.
“Lucia, how can I not see you?” He shrugged up one muscular shoulder. “You’re everywhere.”
She didn’t know exactly what that meant, but she knew he was saying something important. She could see it in the grim set of his mouth, the raw emotion in his bright-silver eyes, and the furrow of his blond brows.
