Page 81 of Carnal: The Beast Who Loved Me

“You know.”

“No. I don’t know.”

“You can ride a motorcycle.” She emphasized the last two syllables to mock his previous insistence that his ride was not a motorbike.

“Yes.” He moved closer, eyes staring at her lips. “What else?”

“You give every indication of being excellent at scheduling.”

He chuckled and looked away for an instant. “Okay. What else?”

“Your crew acts like you’re a walking god.”

“They do not.”

“They do. You should see the way they look at you and look to you for direction.”

He got serious for a minute. “I don’t want them to think I’m extraordinary. I’m not. I’m just a guy.”

“Carnal.” Rosie laughed. “You’re not ‘just a guy’. Youareextraordinary.”

He looked over her face, eyes darkening. “I don’t care what they think of me, Rosie. I care whatyouthink of me.”

“Why?”

“You’re changing the subject.”

“What was the subject?”

“What else I can do better.”

“You’re a better kisser.”

“You’resowrong about that,” he said as he leaned in for a kiss.

Rosie met his lips and savored the sweetness of the kiss as it was deepening. When he started to purr, she pulled back.

“And there’s that!” she said.

He lay back with a soft laugh. “Tell me about your family. Then tell me what it is you want for yourself.”

“The first part is easy. I don’t know that I have the answer to the second part. What do you want for yourself?”

“Changing the subject again, but I’ll answer. It depends on you,” he said carefully, studiously searching her response for signs that she was open to hearing more.

“Me! Why would it depend on me?”

“Before you came, I was doing exactly what I wanted, for now, for the future. Fucking, drinking, fighting. I saw you when…” He looked away and Rosie knew he was reliving the horrible afternoon when she’d first seen him. “I saw you and I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I don’t have an explanation for that. It was, well, weird. I mean, I didn’t know anything about you, but you’d still grabbed onto me like…” he paused, searching for the right words, “there were invisible grappling hooks. I knew you were special. I didn’t knowhowspecial, of course. I just knew there was nobody else like you. For me.” He looked at her. “If it sounds dumb, it’s because I don’t know how to explain it right.”

“It doesn’t sound dumb,” she said softly.

He looked at her with a mixture of embarrassment and hope. “No?”

“No.”

“So then tell me.”

“About…”