Like Gravity(39)

To his credit, he did stop immediately. Some guys probably would have been *s about it – complaining or even trying to force me to continue. But Landon was understanding when I told him I needed to leave.

“It’s cool,” he said, grinning and running a hand through his messy blond mop of hair. “You ever change your mind, though, you know where to find me.”

I laughed as I put my clothes back on and said goodbye. He wasn’t a bad guy. I knew he’d be a good boyfriend to someone someday – just not to me.

Thankfully, the walk home was short. I hadn’t worn a jacket to the bar and the temperature had dropped in the hours since I’d left my house. I rubbed my arms with my palms, trying to work some warmth into my limbs as I turned onto my block. To my surprise, a familiar black pickup truck was parked in front of my house.

I approached cautiously, noting that the truck was still idling and that Finn was probably sitting inside. I’d stopped just short of the passenger window when I heard the engine cut off abruptly and the driver’s side door flew open.

Finn rounded the front of the truck in a blur, grabbing me by the arm and planting my back flat against the passenger door before I could even formulate a protest. He glared at me, his face mere inches from mine. A muscle worked in his jaw as he tried to get control over his anger.

“What do you think you’re doing? Let me go, Finn,” I glared back at him, tugging my arm from his grasp. “I don’t know what the hell your problem is, but I’m going to scream if you don’t back off.”

“You don’t know what my problem is? That’s perfect,” he barked out a laugh, but there was no humor in it. His hands ran through his hair in frustration. “You. You are my f*cking problem, Bee.”

He was calling me Bee again. He’d only done it once before, so I’d dismissed it – but here he was, using it was again. No one ever called me Bee. It had been my mother’s special nickname for me. I decided to let it go, for now; it seemed I had to pick my battles tonight.

“What the hell does that mean?” I asked, incredulous.

“Did you f*ck that guy tonight?”

“That is absolutely none of your business! Now let me go!”

“NO!” Finn roared in my face, his anger reaching a new high. “I can’t let you go. I can’t. And believe me, I’ve tried really f*cking hard. It’s impossible –You’re impossible.” He blew out a harsh breath, and some of the anger cleared from his face. He seemed defeated, suddenly. “I didn’t know how hard this would be. I wish I could say that if I’d known, it would have made me stay away from you. But I can’t, ‘cause I know that’s not true. There’s literally nothing that would’ve keep me from coming back to you once I’d found you.”

I had no idea what he was talking about at this point. His eyes were wild with a desperate intensity I’d never seen before, and he looked like a man close to his breaking point. Honestly, he was starting to frighten me, and I was dangerously close to delivering a swift kick to his balls and making a getaway.

As I was contemplating escape options, he startled me by gently cupping my face in his hands. Anger shifted to tenderness so rapidly I couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment it had happened. His blue eyes pierced mine with a look of steadfast resolve, as if he’d suddenly made a decision about something, and I had the overpowering urge to run far, far away from whatever he was about to say.

“I stayed away from you all week, trying convince myself that I didn’t need you. I knew I should stay away from you, that I shouldn’t pursue this. But then I saw you leaving with that douchebag at The Blue Note and I lost it. I can’t even—the thought that—” He broke off, unable to even say the words. “Did. You. Fuck. Him.” He ground each word out, as if it caused him physical pain to expel them.

“No,” I said, glaring into his dark blue eyes. “Not that it’s any of your business. I can f*ck whoever I want, Finn. You certainly do.”

“I haven’t been with anyone since I met you.”

What?!

I pushed my shock aside and scoffed. “Yeah, right. And even if that’s true, why would I care? It’s not like I give a damn who you’re f*cking.”

In a flash, the anger was back. “Don’t do that. Don’t trivialize what’s between us. Don’t think you can pretend with me. Your little indifferent act might work with everyone else in your life, but I see through it. And you know what I see, Bee?” He paused, leaning in so close our noses grazed. “I see fear. You’re scared shitless that you feel something for me, ‘cause god for-f*cking-bid you actually had to let down those walls you’ve built around yourself and let me in.”

My mouth gaped open like a fish as I tried to conjure a response, a denial, even a laugh – anything to steer this conversation into safer waters. My mind was reeling, though, and I couldn’t form a single sound. I simply stared at him, adrift in a state of shock. Years of shutting out my emotions had left me utterly incapable of processing his declaration, let alone how I felt about it. Maybe Finn recognized this about me, though, because he continued to speak, undeterred by my silence.

“Since the second you woke up in my arms on the sidewalk that day, it was only a matter of time until we got here, to this moment. We were inevitable. You know it. I know it.”