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When he finally spoke, he scrubbed at his beard. “It was new. Dominic’s a bastard. I didn’t want him spoiling it.”
So, he was willing to tell his teammates who would definitely tease and make fun, but not his own brother. I shook my head. Not good enough.
Ransom blew out a sigh. “And with all this stuff with the company, well, it just didn’t come up.”
Ah, now I understood. We weren’t that important to him. It all made so much more sense now. He was just using me, keeping me on the line with talk of forever because he knew that’s what I wanted. Using what I wanted to get me to agree to move and be his live-in plaything. At the end of the day, though, all he wanted was someone to hold. Someone. I was convenient now. Someone else would be later. I understood.
I forced myself to breathe through it. “You should go to Seattle. It sounds important.”
His eyes searched my face. “I’m not going anywhere until we work this out.”
I was tired of this. “Work what out? Dom didn’t know about us and now he does. The secret’s out. Your teammates know and now your brother knows too. I have work to do. So, he can clean up his watery mess, you pack, and I’ll work. We’ll meet back here in a week.” To convince him, I pressed a kiss to his lips. “See? I’m fine.”
Ransom looked up at Dominic. The brothers exchanged looks, then Ransom rose. “I’ll go pack.”
The understanding of how Ransom really felt knotted in my stomach, but I’d fall apart later. After he left. When I could ugly cry and readjust my vision of how my future would look.
When Ransom was ready to go, he dropped his bag and leaned on the doorway of the guest bedroom. “Look, Raven, I don’t want to fight.”
I almost choked at his words. He didn’t care enough to fight. The fact that he didn’t spoke volumes.
He grunted. “Let’s just go back to what we were before Dominic came tonight. Let’s just be us and not give a shit about anyone else.”
Put through my subtext reader, it sounded like he was ashamed of me. Because this was just for now. I was living in some version of a fat girl’s dream. Sex with an incredibly attractive man, the man you’ve wanted since high school, and then it’s over because he’s too ashamed to tell anyone he’s with you and thought better of wanting a forever with you.
I nodded. It was all I could do.
He took a step closer. “So, we’re okay?”
I nodded again.
He blew out a breath. “I hate how it seems like I’m asking you that all the time. He took a hesitant step forward, nodding. “It’s just, well, something feels off between us. Like when you put your jelly side of the bread on top of the peanut buttered side and they don’t line up.”
I tilted my head. “You and I are like a skewed PB&J?”
He shrugged. “Guess that’s the best I can describe it.”
My heart thundered. I had to end this. I valued myself more than this now. “When you get back, I’ll be gone.”
His eyes snapped up to mine and flared. “What the fuck?”
I blew out a sigh. “I’m going to go stay with a friend. I thought you’d rather know now than get a text from me later.”
His nostrils flared. “Raven!”
Standing in front of the door in a T-shirt and jeans, bare feet, and his hair down, he was exactly the way I wanted to remember him. Big, grumpy, heart-breakingly handsome, and perfect.
He took another giant step forward. “Stay!”
I stood with my arms crossed. “Nope. I need to do some things on my own, not be your beck-and-call girl.”
From the growls emanating from him, I wasn’t sure what he would do next.
I swallowed hard past the lump in my throat. “We’ll talk more when you get back. It’ll give us a week to think about things, do our work, and then see what we want when you get back.”
He stepped closer until we were toe-to-toe. “I want you, Raven. That isn’t going to change.”
I lifted a shoulder not able to look up at him. “You never know. It could.”
