My phone beeps and I check the time on it. “I should probably get up and do some work.”
“Yeah, I need to get back to the bakery. Before I do, though.” He clears his throat.
Here we go. Time for ‘The Talk’. Yippee. I can’t wait. I cross my arms over my chest and lean back against my pillow.
“I enjoyed our night together—”
“Night together?” I snort. “I think you mean sex. We had sex. Which is probably freaking you out because you think I’m your little sister and now you’re having some type of crisis about being in an incestuous relationship.”
“Can I talk?”
“I don’t know. Can you?”
“You are such a shit stirrer.”
I smile. “Thank you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment.”
I point to his face. “Your smile says otherwise.”
He wasn’t actually smiling, but he is now. He cocks an eyebrow. “Will you let me talk or are you going to continue to interrupt me?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Are you going to say I’m a mistake again? Because we know how that conversation will end.” I raise my fists and shadow box.
“Damnit, Ash. There’s a difference between me saying us being together is a mistake and saying you’re a mistake.”
I wrap my arms around my waist and wait for him to explain. I hope I have enough duct tape in my arsenal to tape my heart back together when he’s finished because I just know whatever he’s planning to say is going to shred me.
He reaches for me, but I scoot away from him. His hand drops to the blanket.
“As I was saying, I enjoyed our night together – the sex.” He waggles his eyebrows, but I give him nothing. “It was phenomenal. The best I’ve ever had.”
I clutch my shirt to stop myself from reaching out to him at those words. I know there’s a but coming and it’s going to hurt.
“But we can’t be together.”
My heart stalls and I forget to breathe. Expecting the words didn’t dim the pain whatsoever.
“Because you consider me your little sister,” I manage to force the words out of my mouth.
“No. Hell no. I don’t take care of you because I see you as my sister. I take care of you because I can’t help myself. I need to make sure you’re happy and healthy and safe.”
Now, I’m confused. Those words make it sound as if he cares for me.
“But we can’t be together?” Color me confused.
He doesn’t hesitate. “No.”
My breath hitches and he reaches for me again. I scramble to the other side of the bed. He may be freakishly tall, but this bed is obnoxiously large. Unless he crawls into it with me, which he won’t, I can keep my distance from him.
“It’s not you.”
I growl.
“No,” he’s quick to recover, “I’m not going to say it’s not you, it’s me. I can’t have a relationship with anyone.”
A lightbulb goes off above me and I realize I’m the biggest idiot in the world. I nearly smack myself upside the head.