I was never going to be alone again?
Those were big fucking words. The biggest fucking words.
Alex shook his head against my hair. “I thought for sure you’d figured it out by now since you usually get everything else by yourself.”
“Figured what out?” I asked, too focused on the feel of him right there, of the weight of his hand on my back.
“I gave you every clue I could think of.”
Turning my head just a little, I let my cheek press to the strange texture of his suit. “What clues?”
The hand on my back moved up and down. “I told you I didn’t end up at your house on accident. Told you my grandmother made it happen. I heard her tell you that we were supposed to meet before then.”
“Uh-huh.” Why did I ever think he wasn’t that warm? He was.
“I told you about Agatha and Robert. Alana has a husband.”
I put my palm on the solid wall of his ribs.
His whisper sent goose bumps up my back as he breathed the words directly into my ear. “We both know what my grandmother showed you.”
Every single part of my body stiffened, and it took me a second to say, “Right, and we both know you didn’t want to meet me.”
Alex’s huff of a laugh went right to my ear, just as nice as his whisper. “I know I didn’t word it like that.”
“No, that’s word for word what you said.”
The palm on my back moved until his fingers curled around my hip, and I felt his laugh.
“Fucker,” I said, muffled against his chest.
That just made him laugh more, made him streak his hand up and down my spine, with what felt like his fingernails gently following along too. His breath brushed my ear again. “We both know that you like being told what to do as much as I do. We’re almost the same person, remember? You wouldn’t have believed me if I’d told you we were supposed to be together, and you know it.”
He’d gone there. He’d really gone there. He was acknowledging it.
Another set of goose bumps rose along my back, on my arms, even my scalp felt funny. But I pressed my cheek a little tighter to the material of his suit as I thought about it for maybe three seconds. Should I pretend like he was wrong?
Or should I just fucking own it?
I knew the answer like I knew that I would do just about anything for this son of a bitch. “Probably not, but I might have come around.” I spent another three seconds thinking about it. “All right, you’re right. I would’ve thought you were on mushrooms, but I would have come around if I thought I had a chance in hell of maybe making it work. If I thought that maybe you would have been open to liking me a little, maybe more in the future. Do you know how many marriage of convenience books I’ve read, Alex? They’re my favorite. It’s not that crazy of an idea to me.”
It was the fucking truth too. I wasn’t about to deny it. Him liking me didn’t seem possible, but plenty of cultures had adopted that plan and made it work for them. It worked for some people.
And the fact that Alex looked the way he looked… and his heart was the way it was… really, nobody would have said no.
He was no ray of fucking sunshine. He was the moon. A full fucking moon so bright no amount of clouds could fully block him out.
I pulled back just enough to tip my head at the same time he did too.
“You’re my first real friend,” I told him, wanting him to understand.
“And that’s never going to change.”
I dropped my voice and gulped. “Meeting you has been the best thing that’s ever happened to me—”
He had the nerve to smirk. “I think that was the whole point of having my back broken.”
“Alex. Listen to me. You should be with someone you want to be with, not—”
“You think that I would do something, feel something, if I didn’t want to?”
I pressed my lips together, knowing that answer immediately. “You don’t do anything you don’t want to.”
He didn’t even have to say “duh” to get his point across.
But right at that instant, his cell phone started ringing from somewhere on his body and had me wondering where the hell it was hidden. His hand dipped under his cape before he pulled it out like magic, giving me a long look as he did, and tapped at the screen before putting it up to his ear.
I pressed my lips together, trying to calm my thoughts and brain.
His cobalt blue boots were molded to his feet and shins. The dark gray material hugged absolutely everything. He was tall, ripped, incredible, and beautiful. One of the most well-known figures in the world.
And he had said he liked me. Always liked me.
This gorgeous, amazing, complicated man was supposed to be mine, according to his grandmother.
He lifted that heartbreaking face toward the sky, listening to whatever he was being told. Suddenly, he hung up before leveling a look at me. “I need to go. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Okay.”
His eyes glowed. “We’ll talk when I get back?”
“Sure.” I smiled at him, and I tried my best to put all the affection in my body out for him. Just in case.
Because he might have said what he said, but…
Alex took a step forward, his eyes blazing so bright I had to blink for a second. And then he dipped his face, putting his forehead against mine, and said, “I didn’t leave you alone for a month, Gracie. I came to check on you every other night while you were sleeping. You think those Dr Peppers showed up magically? I thought you’d like the Xbox.”
I felt my eyes just about bug out of my head.
“I want you in my life, this mate shit aside. Don’t come up with a million different bullshit excuses why I don’t. I care about you. I worry about you. And I’m going to come back as soon as I can so we can finish this conversation, you got it? We’ve put it off long enough,” he whispered fiercely.
I nodded, fucking stupefied, and then he was out of there. He took a step back and shot straight up faster than I could comprehend.
A human-shaped comet.
One that apparently was supposed to be mine.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE
We’ll talk about this when I get home, he’d said.
Squeezing my hands together, the sound of a door opening had me sitting up straight on the bed. I’d been on the edge, trying to talk myself into reading my book after jumping into the shower, but I’d been too busy thinking about our conversation. And staring at my giant Hello Kitty in the corner.
I hadn’t expected him to get home so soon.
But I didn’t think it was such a bad thing either.
I listened, not totally surprised when a big shadow appeared at my door. I only had one of the bedside lamps on.
“What are you doing?” Alex asked, stepping into the room.
Oh.
His suit was pulled down to his waist, leaving most of that incredible upper body bare to my poor unprepared eyes.
I blinked and made myself focus on his face. “Oh, you know, I’ve just been sitting here for the last thirty minutes, wondering what in the hell all that stuff we talked about really meant.”
He raised one arm to palm the back of his neck, giving me an even better view of those hard pecs. “You know exactly what I meant. You always do.”