Page 162 of So This Is War
“To you, maybe not. To my dad, I have everything to prove.” She leans back against the couch and stares up at the ceiling. “And God, he probably predicted this would happen, that I’d fall into your bed and disappoint him all over again. He probably saw this happening a mile away.”
Feeling like she’s pulling away, I move closer. I’m not letting this go. Now that I’ve had her, I’m not allowing anything to get in the way of us being together, even if that means sacrificing a whole lot.
“I need to go,” she says as she starts to get up, but I stop her.
“No,” I say.
Her eyes meet mine. “No?”
I shake my head. “Fuck no, you’re not leaving.”
“Levi, I never should have?—”
“Don’t,” I say. “Please fucking don’t. Don’t for one second regret any of this.”
“But don’t you see?” she says. “All of this has distracted me from what I’m truly supposed to be doing, focusing on my art and my career.” She presses her hand to her forehead and lets out a deep sigh. Then she looks over at me. “I’m really sorry. This is on me, not you.” She tries to stand again, but I keep her close.
“How about this,” I say, not wanting to go around in circles and feeling a deep-rooted panic.I can’t lose her. “We both take the blame and figure out how we can move forward from here.”
“How could we move forward?” she asks. “We’re both going to get into serious trouble for what happened. It might be best if we just . . . go our separate ways.”
“No,” I say.
“No?” she asks, looking like she’s in complete disbelief.
“No,” I repeat. “Not going to happen. Here’s what we’re going to do.” I turn toward her and force her to keep her eyes on me. “We’re going to date?—”
“Levi.” She shakes her head.
I hold my hand out. “Hear me out, okay?” She sighs but lets me proceed. “We’re going to date. I’m going to woo the shit out of you so you won’t ever consider dating another man again.” That garners a smile. “You’ll continue to work for me, but you won’t be doing weird shit anymore. You’ll focus heavily on social media and preparing me for away games. When you’re not doing things for me, you’ll do your art. You’ll work on it and find what feels right. You won’t live in the nanny hole anymore because you’ll sleep in my bed.” She raises a brow at me, so I add, “That’s nonnegotiable,notsorry. And when the time comes, and you’re ready, we’ll tell your dad about us, but only when you feel like you have everything in place. Until then, we’ll keep this between us and only us.”
“Levi, you’re risking a lot.”
“Worth it,” I say.
“You barely know me.”
“I know enough about you to understand that I like you. That I want to get to know more about you. Wylie, I never stopped thinking about you after that night we first met. I feel such a genuine connection with you, and I’d regret not exploring this. If you want sex off the table, fine, we can take that off the table, but at least give this a chance, Wylie. Give us a chance.”I have never begged a woman for anything, so I seriously hope she doesn’t ignore my plea.
“You’d take sex off the table after what we just did?”
“I mean . . .” I scratch the back of my head. “It doesn’t thrill me to know that I can’t be inside you every night, but if that’s what it takes, then yeah, sex is off the table.”
She smiles demurely and looks down at our entwined fingers. “I wouldn’t want sex off the table.”
“Even better,” I say, making her laugh. To my surprise, she moves on top of my lap and rests her hands on my chest. I run my palms over her thighs as I stare up at her.
“You think this could be something?”
“I know it can be something,” I say. “Don’t you feel it, Wylie? Doesn’t it feel right to you?”
“Almost too right,” she says.
“No such thing.” I slide my hands under her skirt and bunch it around her waist.
She smirks. “You think we could pull this off?”
“Easy, babe. You work on your art during the day, dabble in some social media before my games, and when I get home, I’ll make you scream my name until you no longer have a voice. Seems like a good deal to me, and hey, if you happen to make me a bologna sandwich here or there, that works too.”
