Guilty Needs(43)

Time was one thing he ended up having plenty of. He waited in her house for four hours. The hour hand on the clock kept ticking away and by the time she finally turned into the driveway, it was after eight. Belatedly, he remembered that she’d been contracted to the landscaping on the upscale subdivision up on the hill and the job had started this week.

The house was so quiet that he heard the garage door open, shoved out of the chair and moved to stand in the door to wait for her. With his hands jammed deep into his pockets, he rested his shoulder against the doorjamb. And waited.

When she came through the door, Colby’s heart leapt into his throat, lodged there for a brief moment and then sank down somewhere in the vicinity of his knees. Knees that went just a little bit weak at the sight of her.

She looked exhausted, hauntingly fragile, with circles under her eyes that were so dark, they looked like bruises. Bree didn’t notice him at first as she nudged the door shut behind her and dropped her keys and cell phone onto the counter just inside the door. She crossed the gleaming wooden floor, shambling to a halt in front of the refrigerator. Listless, she opened the door and just stood there, staring inside with absolutely no interest.

“I don’t know about you but I haven’t had much of an appetite all week,” he said quietly.

Bree tensed.

The hand holding the door open went white in the knuckles but she didn’t slam it shut and turn and rail at him to get the hell out of her house. Instead, she eased it closed and then turned around. She tucked her hands into her back pockets, the grass-green T-shirt she wore drawing tight across her breasts.

“What do you want?”

He shrugged restlessly. “A lot of things. Turning back the clock a week sounds like a good way to start. But that isn’t going to happen. So first up, I guess I should tell you I’m sorry.”

Her lashes lowered, shielding her eyes. “I figured that out after the first five messages you left on my machine. Okay. You’re sorry.”

“I wouldn’t want to hurt you for my life.”

She turned away, moving to stare out the window over the sink. The pool was visible from the window and staring at it sent a fresh lance of pain driving through him. It hadn’t even been a month since he’d made love to her for the first time, right by the pool.

“I know that. And you didn’t.” She didn’t look at him as she spoke, just stared outside.

With a derisive snort, he said, “Then apparently you weren’t paying attention. That’s exactly what I almost did.”

“But you didn’t. It’s over. It’s done. You’ve apologized. Now would you please leave?”

“That’s not the only reason I’m here.”

Now she finally looked at him, shooting him a narrow glance over her shoulder that managed to convey more than a thousand-page thesis. “I don’t really care what other reasons you have for being here, Colby. You want to think I’m just sleeping –correction, I’m no longer sleeping with you, so you want to think I was sleeping with you because Alyssa wanted me to. Great opinion you have of me.”

She stalked past him without another look. Making it pretty clear that she was done with the conversation. Too damn bad, Colby thought. Hell, he’d already f*cked things up. He couldn’t make it any worse, right?

So as she headed toward her room, he followed her and when she would have slammed the door in his face, he wedged his foot against it and bodily forced his way into the room.

Bree glared at him, her arms crossed over her breasts, foot tapping against the floor in an erratic rhythm. “You know, the Neanderthal bit just doesn’t work for you.”

“Do you love me?”

Her eyes widened. He could see the pulse slamming away under the fragile skin in her throat. “Wuh…what?”

“Do you love me?” he repeated, closing the distance between them.

She retreated from him but ended up backing herself against the wall. Colby kept his distance as he waited for her to answer him. Even though all he wanted was to reach for her and pull her close, hold her tight, never let go.

“Is that why the hell you barged your way into my room?” she asked, her voice caustic.

“Yes. You haven’t answered me. Do you love me?”

Bree sneered at him. “Sex doesn’t equal love, Colby. I realize that you hooking up with your high school sweetheart doesn’t exactly make you an expert on the subject but you’re not na?ve. You know life doesn’t work like that.”

“I also know that you’re not the type to fall into bed with any guy you meet.” She wouldn’t look at him, not directly. Over the past few weeks, up until he’d f*cked up so badly, she’d lost some of the evasive caution she always showed around him. But now it was back. Back in full force and she wouldn’t meet his eyes for anything.

He figured there could be a few reasons for that. The first one left him almost sick as he considered it, so he had to ask. “Are you afraid of me?”

Dark gray eyes narrowed and she shoved off the wall, advancing on him until the toes of her work books bumped his tennis shoes. “Afraid of you? Please.” Her derisive sneer made it clear she found the idea pretty much laughable.

Okay, so if she wasn’t afraid of him…well, there was only one other option that made sense. Still, he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to put any faith in that idea just yet. Slowly, he reached up, cupped her face. Dragging his thumb across her lower lip, he stared into her eyes, watched as her pupils spiked, flared until just a thin sliver of gray showed. “If you’re not afraid of me, then why do you have such a hard time looking at me?”