Page 59
Della nods.
“Good. Because from now on, you aren’t going to allow others to dictate where you belong. And when you forget, I’ll remind you.”
“Sunny,” she says quietly.
“Does this mean I have a girlfriend, now?” I ask.
Della smiles, her lips brushing against mine. “I’m getting a bit old to be someone’s girlfriend. It sounds very high school.”
“Make a call, Indy. Because I like kissing you, and I’m sure I’m gonna love making up with you.”
“It feels like we’re making up way too quickly. And girlfriend is a big label, seeing as I’ve known you for about five heartbeats.”
I take her hand and put it over my heart. “Five heartbeats are pretty quick. But I can’t fake being excited to see you again.” I glance down the path. “You wanna follow me to the clubhouse? We could make up slowly in my bed. I have a hankering to see how much you like being edged.”
Heat flushes her cheeks immediately. “Sunny!”
“Della.” I can’t help but smile.
“I need to get my samples and tell you some news.”
“Boo.” I bend down to collect the bags she dropped and then, hear her gasp.
“What happened to your knuckles?”
I look down at them. “The guy who said that crap about you. I may have beaten the shit out of him and thrown him down the clubhouse steps before stringing him up to beat him some more.”
“Sunny,” she admonishes. “Did you hurt him badly?”
I shrug. “He’ll be fine…once the cast comes off.”
“Oh my God,” she says. “You can’t just break someone’s bones for saying mean things about me.”
“And you can’t let people run you out of the clubhouse by saying mean things about you either, but here we are.”
“It wasn’t that they were mean. It was how I immediately accepted them as true and let someone else dictate how you and I see each other. And…”
I tug the straps of the bags over my shoulders. “And what?”
She shrugs, and for once, I see her without the shield of confidence she usually has. “And just to confirm, that’s not how you see me, right?”
“Don’t make me drop these bags and prove to you right here that’s not how I see you. Liking you is a surprise to me. A good one. You’re, perhaps, the smartest person I ever met. But you’re also one of the most vulnerable and open. I like how you stand up for yourself, but I also respect your ability to be honest with me like you just were. And if we’re being truthful, here, I’m wondering why you’re back here for me when I’m clearly as stupid as rocks and you’re Doctor Della Hart.”
She smiles at that. “So, we just admit we’re an odd pairing and move on?”
I frown at that. “Depends what you mean by ‘move on.’ Like, you go home and I never see you again? Or we move on, like we see where this thing goes between you and me and see if it works or burns out?”
“Can I just say something, first?” Della asks.
“Don’t know why you’re asking me now when it’s never stopped you before.”
She smiles, and I notice how pretty and white her teeth are. “I didn’t think a man like you would care about relationship definitions.”
I huff. “Yeah, me neither. But somehow, when I woke up and you were gone, I was thinking it might have been good to know what that night meant to you. Whether you wanted something…more. Trust me, I’m not always a pussy when it comes to talking about shit like this.”
She winces. “Do you need to use the word pussy? I mean, the world is filled with derogatory terms linked to our gender or anatomy. Bitch. Pussy. Cunt.”
I glance down her body to the juncture between her thighs, hidden by very practical green shorts. “Getting me hot talking about one of my very favorite parts of you.”
