Take Your Time (Boston Love #4)(84)
I dare you let me be… your one and only…
“We’re in a fight,” I remind Luca belatedly, my voice a whisper.
“We’re always in a fight.” I feel his grin against my temple. “We can fight again later, if you want. Right now, I want to dance with you.”
“Should we be slow dancing, if we’re in a fight?”
“Call it a temporary armistice.”
“A ceasefire?” I pull back to look up at him.
“Exactly.” His lips brush the tip of my nose. “You wanna tell me what happened with Colton?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Bullshit, babe. Saw your face. Saw the way he grabbed you.” His voice gets growly. “He took off after your little chat, but as soon as I track him down, he’s gonna answer to me for putting his hands on you. I promise.”
“Please don’t. You’ll just make things worse.”
“What did he say to you?”
I shake my head. “Nothing important. Nothing I didn’t already know.”
Luca’s eyes narrow. “Not liking the sound of that.”
I tuck my head back down, so I don’t have to look at him. “You don’t have to like it. We’re in a truce. That means you can’t fight with me about it now.”
“Later, then.”
I sigh as we sway, an odd mix of happiness and anxiety swirling through me. A whirlwind of contradictory feelings and desires I cannot sort out, inside my head.
I want to hold him so tight, he never slips away; I want to push him out of every corner of my heart, until I forget how good it feels to be cherished.
I want to see him achieve his dreams, without ever once holding him back; I want to live those dreams at his side, never parted from him.
“You’re quiet.” Luca’s voice is amused. “Never a good thing when you’re quiet, Delilah.”
I scoff. “I can be quiet.”
“Sure you can.” He chuckles. “I just prefer it when you’re yelling at me.”
“You really think it’s normal, the fact that we spend the majority of our time together fighting?”
“Already told you my opinion on that.”
“Foreplay,” I murmur. “I remember what you said. But is it normal?”
“I don’t know. Never done this before.” He tilts my head up to look into his eyes. “Don’t have anything to compare it to.”
“Me neither,” I tell him in a stark voice. “But—”
“Delilah.” He cuts me off.
“Yeah?”
“Why the fuck would we ever want to be normal?”
I can’t help the smile that spreads across my lips, any more than I can fight the urge to rise up onto my tiptoes and kiss him, in full view of dozens of strangers and all my closest friends.
“What was that for?” he asks, eyes warm.
I shrug. “Figured I’d make the most of our armistice while it lasts.”
“You know, it doesn’t actually have to end.”
“And how would that work? We’d just get along? What a ludicrous thought!”
“Could happen.”
“Doubtful.”
“Delilah.”
My brows lift. “Yeah?”
“Saw the look on your face earlier, when you were watching me with Zoe.”
I scowl. “Is there anything you don’t notice?”
“When it comes to you? No. Not really.”
I sigh. Figured as much.
“Point is, babe, I saw your face. Saw the hurt there, when I was hugging her.” He leans down to capture my gaze, so I can’t look away. “You know why she threw her arms around me?”
I shake my head warily.
“The way we grew up — foster homes, tossed around by the system, no real family — it can make a person guarded. Hard to get to know. Zoe’s always worried about me ending up alone, because of that. Especially after she left.” His voice gets so soft I have to strain to hear him. “We keep in touch pretty regularly, even though she’s halfway around the world. She tells me about her adventures, all the places she’s been, and Parker; I tell her about my fights, new Knox Investigations cases, Boston’s current events, and… sometimes… about you.”
“Me?”
He nods. “See, she knew, even before she left, that I was intrigued by you. Felt pretty sorry for me, too, considering until recently I was damn near positive my feelings were one-sided.”
“Luca…”
“But tonight—” His voice deepens. “Told her something new.”
My heart pounds erratically.
He leans forward, until his mouth is at my ear. His whisper is meant for only me to hear. “I told her I’d met someone who makes me laugh like no one else and curse like a sailor, who breaks my damn heart every time she cries and heals it every time she smiles…. I told her I was in love with a beautiful, broken girl named Delilah…” He pulls back to scan my face, eyes gleaming. “She was so happy, she threw her arms around me. That’s the hug you saw, babe.”
My feet stop moving. My breaths are coming too fast. I feel like I’m going to explode from all the emotions rushing into me at once — joy, grief, pain, ecstasy, hope.