Page 95 of Leave a Mark
Wren shook her head. “No… no…” She pulled in a breath and shrugged her grandmother’s arm off her. “…let’s finish up in here first.” She stuck her hands in the dishwater again, but when she brought up the plate to rinse it, Lee saw that her fingers shook.
Wren wouldn’t meet his gaze when she handed the plate to him. “Stop looking at me like that,” she ordered.
Lee made himself look away. It was the cowardly thing to do. He wanted to pull her into his arms and demand to know why his question upset her, but fear held him by the throat. Wren was so good at pushing him away, and things had gone so well for the last few days that he dared not press her.
“What are you talking about?” he asked lightly. “I’m just standing here drying a plate.”
A weak laugh escaped Wren’s lips, and Mamaw Gigi bit back a smile. At least he’d managed this.
Finally, Wren looked up at him. “That’s good. Looks like you got your hands full.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“I THINK Ishould go home tonight.”
Even in night’s shadows, Wren could see Lee’s disappointment. They sat in her Mustang in his driveway. She’d let him drive home — he’d bounced in the driver’s seat like a seven-year-old, cheering as he revved the engine — but now he was putting it together. Letting him drive was her way of softening the blow. She’d agreed to sleep over — she’dofferedto sleep over — and now she was backing out.
But the evening had been strained, to say the least. Wren knew Mamaw hadn’t meant to, but her grandmother’s ridiculous behavior had only reinforced the truth. Mamaw Gigi was over-the-moon to have Lee to dinner because he was so far out of her league.
And then Wren had to go all catatonic when he’d asked about that damn apartment. They were lucky she hadn’t run screaming out the front door. She knew Lee thought she was tough, but he’d come dangerously close to seeing her max out. She needed to regroup before she did something stupid.
He studied her for a moment. “Please come in.”
Wren shook her head. “Not tonight.”
Lee held her gaze. “Give me a chance to change your mind.”
Wren had to smile at his persistence, but she wasn’t going to bend. “Another time.”
He drew a breath to speak and worked his jaw for a moment, seeming to weigh his words. Then he took Wren’s hand in his. “You know we don’t have to do anything, right? I mean, I won’t even touch you if you don’t want me to,” he said, looking almost pained. “I just want to be with you.”
Wren gave a mirthless laugh. “So, what? We’d just cuddle?”
“Yeah.” The left side of his mouth curved up in the most bewitching way. “That sounds awesome.”
Wren laughed again. In her twenty-five years on the planet, she’d never just cuddled. That wasn’t why men got into bed with her. Everything in her experience had taught her that when a man got into bed with her, he wanted one thing, and if she didn’t want that same thing, she had no business lying down with him.
“Gimme my keys.” She held out her hand to Lee, and she was grateful he didn’t hesitate. Wren was out of the car in the next second, but she stood back and kept her distance while Lee stepped out of the driver’s seat.
He had no problem reading her intentions. He closed the Mustang’s door, leaned against it, and folded his arms across his chest, blocking her retreat.
“What did I do, Wren?”
She expected him to look angry, but something softer filled his eyes. Was it regret?
“Nothing. I’m just tired,” she lied.
Lee pulled in a deep breath and held it before letting it go. He watched her. “I’m going to be honest with you,” he said, his voice even. “I have a twenty-four-hour shift tomorrow, and I need a good night’s sleep—”
“Good, go get i—”
“I’m not finished.” He squared his shoulders and pitched his voice lower, silencing her. “I need a good night’s sleep. And the thought of not seeing you until Thursday or even Friday physically hurts—”
The sound of her startled breath rasped between them. Lee dropped his hands and pressed his palms against her car.
“So I need you to kiss me. And I mean really kiss me so that I know we’re okay. So I know that this isn’t you trying to push me away again. And I’ll know that come Thursday or Friday, you’ll let me see you.”
His fearlessness wrecked her. Where did he get the power to just say those things aloud, when, at the moment, she could say nothing.
