Page 24 of Nine Months to Love

“You were offering sex,” I remind her. “I don’t mix business and pleasure. But it seems—” I touch her cheek and she goes still. “—you wanted more than that.”

“I stopped spying on you for her,” she insists. “For almost two years, I went dark. I stopped answering her calls. I stopped meeting her. I gave her nothing. Because I fuckingcaredabout you. I gave you everything. And you never even noticed.”

There’s real pain in her voice. Real hurt. For a second, I almost believe she means it.

“You can’t blame me for that,” I tell her. “You’re good at hiding what you feel.”

“So are you. Why should I believe you now?”

“Because I’m asking you to.” I move closer, close enough to kiss her. She holds her breath, and I can feel her pulse racing. “But something changed, didn’t it? What made you go back to Natalia?”

She turns her back to me, and her shoulders hunch like she’s bracing for a blow. “Sheentered the picture.”

That’s that, then. The turning point. Mikayla watched me fall for Olivia. Her jealousy sent her straight back to Natalia. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and all that bullshit.

“Mikayla…” I tower over her, and she has to crane her neck to look at me. “You thought I chose another woman, so you ran back to my mother?”

“You made it very clear who you wanted.”

“It was an act.”

Her nostrils flare. “So you keep saying.”

I throw my fist in the air, frustrated beyond belief. Then I brace myself against the mantel, close enough that she feels my body heat. Close enough to intimidate. “Stop playing the jilted lover. It doesn’t suit you.”

“You want me to put everything on the table? Tell you what I know so you can trust me again?” She shoves my chest hard enough that I actually move back an inch. “How fucking stupid do you think I am?”

“Since you admitted you’re working with my mother? Pretty fucking stupid.”

“I’m not telling you a damn thing.”

I hide my anger behind a smile. Her pupils dilate. She takes a step back, but she’s not running. Not yet. “What if I ask nicely?”

She looks at the mantel where my hand rests, then back at me. “You really think we have a future together?”

“I can’t guarantee anything. You know I don’t make promises I can’t keep. But we can try.”

Her cheeks flush. Hope brightens her eyes, and I almost feel bad for what I’m about to do to her.

Almost.

“Then prove it.”

I wasn’t expecting that. “Prove it?”

She nods, emboldened now. “You heard me.”

“And how would you suggest I do that?”

The gleam in her eyes tells me I just walked into her trap. She has me cornered and I didn’t even see it coming. She’s better at this than I gave her credit for.

“Kiss me.”

She puts her hand on my chest, and her nails dig in just enough to remind me she’s not Olivia. That she never will be.

“Kiss me, Stefan. Like you mean it. Then we can talk.”

Instinct pulls me closer. I can count her eyelashes. Smell the stale coffee on her breath mixing with that desperate perfume. See the lipstick caked on her cracked lips.