Page 75 of Beni

“I think the better question,” he started, “is what you want here, August.”

“Or that’s your way of getting out of a tough conversation.”

“Not at all.” Beni sat up straight, leaning back a bit on his bike because this woman had no idea. None at all what she had done to him in their time together. “I know exactly what I want when it comes to you. I want everything. Whatever you want to give me, that’s what I want to take, okay. But here’s the thing—that’s hard to do when you’re not here because you’re somewhere else. And how are we supposed to figure out what we’re doing when one of us isn’t going to be here to do that?”

She swallowed hard. “You’re asking me to stay in Chicago … again.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Suggestion is enough, Beni.”

“You asked what I wanted from this, though. Why ask if you don’t want a truthful answer?”

“My life is in New—”

“And mine was in Toronto, but shit changes. That’s life.”

“I have a job there. My parents. You and Camilla … you both think that it should be easy for someone to just uproot everything at the drop of a hat because something feels like it might be great, but that’s the thing. I don’t know that anything here will work out. The job … you. None of it, and I am not the kind of woman who risks a sure thing on something.”

Ouch.

She hit him where it hurt.

A part of him respected it.

Another part wanted to grab that woman, drag her to him, and kiss her until she understood that nothing was ever going to feel right or good in his life again until he could see and speak to her every single day of his life. It didn’t have to be normal or make sense. It just was.

She made him crazy.

He liked that just fine.

And yet, Beni didn’t argue with her. He wasn’t going to push August into something she wasn’t ready for just because he was at a completely different place than she was. That wasn’t fair to her, and he wasn’t that type of asshole.

Maybe not today, or tomorrow … but someday, if he did that, and forced her into a choice that she hadn’t willingly made because she wanted it too, then she would resent him. It wouldn’t be any different for Camilla, if her friend did the same.

He didn’t want that at all.

“For the record,” he said, “so it can be known it was said and all, I want you to stay here. I want you to take that job. I want you to be mine—my fucking girl, okay? But I want it to be what you want, too, and that’s what matters more.”

“Killing me here,” she murmured.

Beni shrugged. “Fair is fair, woman. You killed me from the jump.”

From second one.

First glance.

She had him caught.

Every step, each word after was just … bonus. A lure drawing him in closer while she reeled and reeled until she had him caught in her snare.

What was he supposed to do now?

Wait her out.

August glanced back at the house before coming back to him just as fast. “It’s not a no, okay? It’s just a … I need time. I have things to take care of back at home when my time here is done, and then I can seriously give this a shot.”

Beni nodded once. “Okay.”