Page 216 of Positively Pricked

"And, as long as I'm confessing," he said, "I was happy as hell that your house got smashed."

I made a move to pull back. "Wait, what?"

"I'm not kidding," he said, refusing to let go. "If I had an ax, I'd have chopped that tree down myself."

I shouldn’t have laughed, but it struck me as incredibly funny. "It wasn't smashed," I said. "It was squashed."

"Smashed, squashed, same difference to me. I'm just pissed I didn't think of it myself."

"Easy foryouto say. You're not the one who's gotta find a new place."

"So don't."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, don't go."

I snuggled tighter against him. At the moment, I wasn't sure I could go anywhere, even if I wanted to.

And Ididn'twant to.

Still, there was something I wanted to know before I lost my nerve. I pulled back to study his face. "Can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"Was there ever anything between you and Kayla?"

"Hell no."

I wasn't surprised, but Iwascurious. "But if that's the case, why didn't you deny it? To Teddy, I mean?"

"Ididdeny it."

"You did not. I was there, remember?"

"On the plane?" he said. "Well yeah. By then, I'd already denied it a dozen times. That stuff gets old fast."

On this, I could totally relate. After all, Teddy was still convinced that I was "boning" Professor Lumberjack. From now on, I decided, I'd take Zane's approach and let Teddy think whatever he wanted – because heaven knows, he would, anyway.

Tentatively, I asked, "And what about all those models?"

"What about them?"

"Well, you dated a whole bunch of them."

"Yeah. I did. And I'm not gonna lie. I had some good times."

I could only imagine, except I really didn't want to.

Zane added, "But you wanna know the truth?"

Bracing myself, I nodded.

"Stuff like that?" he said. "Well, that gets old, too."

"So what happened?" I asked. "You got tired of them?

"No." His gaze met mine. "I fell in love."