“Love you too,” she said before we clicked off.
Desiree was worried about me with Tywin, and I understood her concern. She didn’t want me to get swept up into the Vallin tornado that had blown into her and Mecca’s lives. I placed the phone on the coffee table. Tywin had chosen to sit in the gray leather recliner that didn’t match the plush burgundy velvet of my couch but the color scheme somehow worked.
“I’ll get you some water,” I stated, standing.
I took quick steps to the kitchen, not even knowing if the man wanted water, but he was getting some anyway. He was the first man I had freely invited inside any place I had lived, which was a testament to how much I didn’t trust men.
I took two bottles from the fridge, making sure I guzzled half of mine before I returned and handed him his bottle.
“So, Tywin, what’s the plan? Are you hanging out outside my apartment until morning?”
He finished a long swig of water before screwing on the cap and placing it on the table. He sat staring, not answering my question while the blaring tension in his body caused me to squirm. I didn’t break eye contact because I couldn’t.
“Yes, that’s the plan,” he finally answered, but he hadn’t released me from his gaze yet.
His eyes dropped for a second, and his concerns were playing out in the tension that creased the corners of his eyes and made him pull his lips into a tight line.
“I’m sorry you got caught up in this drama,” he said, breaking the silence. “I believe you need to know that being friends with the two women who are about to become Vallins will likely cast you in whatever drama the name stirs up.”
“I understand. We have been friends for eight years now, and though I just received a sample of how intense the Vallin drama could get, I was also aware that the Evans’ drama had the ability to get just as intense. If you’re suggesting I end my friendship with them, it’s not going to happen. They have always helped me whenever I was in trouble, and I’d do the same for them.”
His smile lit up my living room, his head shaking in quiet amusement. “I had audio on so I was able to listen to what went down inside the spa. Anyone with enough balls to stand up to Khane is someone I know won’t shy away from danger.”
I stifled a grin. “For the record, I was scared shitless of your cousin, but I wasn’t going to stand by and let him take Desiree without knowing what the hell was going on. Had I known you guys were in a full-blown war, I’d have kept my mouth shut and let him get her the hell out of there. It was my fault he had to kill anyone at all. I held them up and kept them from leaving.”
He shook his head. “You didn’t do anything wrong. If he’d left you in there…” His pretty white teeth sank into his sexy bottom lip like the thought of his cousin leaving me irked his nerve. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You did the right thing. We should all be so lucky to have a friend like you.”
His sincere tone was like a smooth caress gliding along my skin, letting me know he meant what he was saying. He stood, and I was taken aback by his swift movement and abrupt ending to our conversation.
“I better get going,” he said, picking up his bottle of water.
I jumped up like my legs had springs in them, not wanting him to go. My heart rate had shot up for no apparent reason. What was up with me and this man?
“Let me walk you out,” I offered before I fell in step alongside him.
We stopped in front of the door, and it thrilled me that he didn’t make an attempt to reach for the door-knob right away. He turned to face me, and I no longer grasped logic because I was flooded with images of kissing him.
“Are you sure you’re okay with everything that happened today?” Concern resided in the creases of his handsome face.
I believed I was more okay with the blood and gore than I was with what was happening between us. The unfurling attraction that seemed to have a mind of its own unnerved me more. There was a sizzle bubbling up along the surface of my skin, and the man hadn’t even touched me—yet.
My eyes chased the sight of his tongue, deliciously wet and pink, sliding across his bottom lip. His gaze ran from the top of my head to my feet and back up to reconnect with mine. The power behind his action, as slight as it was, had me boiling inside my borrowed clothes. There was no damn way he wasn’t experiencing the same magnetic pull that I was.
“Tywin.” Just saying his name was a turn on. “I’m not a woman who beats around the bush. Is there something between us or am I still hyped up on the massive amounts of adrenaline that coursed through me when the bullets were flying and the bodies were dropping?”
He sucked in a long and deep breath before lifting his gaze from mine and pinning it on the wall behind me. Indecision was what I think registered in his gaze before he fixed it back on mine.
His nostrils flared before he took a stalking step closer, his eyes unblinking and intense enough to drain the last of the oxygen from my lungs. My lips parted, leaving my mouth hanging slightly open and me unable to take my next breath since it had stalled on the last inhale.
“There is something,” he finally answered, his tone low but spilling over me like a breezy caress. “But, I’m no good for you, Patrena.”
“Why not?” I knew why, but I was being stubborn and didn’t care.
He took another stalking step, and I was forced to either breathe or pass out.
“I don’t do relationships and you deserve more than what I’m capable of giving you.”
I cracked a sad smile, which allowed me to drag a sip of air through my teeth. At least he was honest and upfront, which was more than I could say for most.