Faye would usually accept that and walk away, but not tonight. “Can I come in?”
“I can’t do this with you, Faye.” Talia pushed off the frame and attempted to close the door, but Faye jammed her foot in the gap. “Faye, please stop.”
“You said what you needed to say earlier, and now it’s my turn. Please, don’t ask me to leave.”
Talia scoffed as she shook her head. “I believe you said what you needed to say last month.”
“I don’t pretend to know what you’ve been through in the past, and I don’t want to tell you that our relationship would never be difficult, but I want to try. I want to stand here right now and ask youagainif you’ll have a drink with me, and this time…I want you to say yes.”
Talia opened the door wider, ushering Faye inside with a tilt of her head.
“You said I make your life difficult, Talia. I don’t know how you expected me to respond to that, but I did so in the only way I knew how. By pushing you away.”
Talia perched herself on the edge of the coffee table, bracing her elbows on her knees as she ran her hands through her hair. “I never meant any of what I said outside the club. You hurt me, so I wanted to hurt you back.”
“I know.”
“Seeing her…” Talia gritted her teeth, nostrils flared. “Seeing her made me realise just how much you meant to me. Jensen, that is.”
“When I first found out who you were, I told myself I couldn’t ever date a dancer. I’d gone over it in my head for all of five minutes, but then I realised that I knew you. I’d already asked you on a date, so the rest didn’t really matter. What you do is what you love. Why would I ever deny you of that?”
“Because everyone does in the end, Faye…”
“But I’m not everyone. And I want you to give me the chance to prove that to you.”
Talia’s head whipped up, confusion written all over her pretty face. “You what?”
“I want you to let me prove to you that youarelovable, that youcanhold down a relationship, and that I’mnotout to hurt you.”
“But it would naturally end up being that way.”
“When you came to my apartment after the club, why exactly did you do that?” Faye wanted to understand the conflicted thoughts in Talia’s head, but she couldn’t. She’d poured her heart out to Faye in the bistro earlier, but now she was finding excuses. Again.
“To kiss you.” Talia’s voice dropped, the unintentional seductiveness making Faye weak in the knees as Talia stared at her from across the room. “I came to your apartment to apologise…and to kiss you.”
Faye’s breath caught when Talia got to her feet and stalked towards her. Those long, slender legs were covered only by mid-thigh shorts, a racerback hugging Talia’s upper body. But then Talia stopped in front of Faye, a slight space between them.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you for some time now, Faye. That was never my issue.Youweren’t my issue. But my expectations when it comes to relationships and love never match up with the reality, so I pushed back. I held you off. Because I didn’t want you to be the same as everyone else.”
Faye reached out a hand, taking Talia’s and pulling her closer. “I’m proud of who you are.”
“What happens when I leave for work?”
Faye smiled, running her thumb over Talia’s knuckles. “I’ll dream of you until you come home.”
“And when we don’t get a single weekend together?”
Faye lifted a shoulder. Talia was going to have to do so much better than that. “That’s the beauty of doing what I do. Weekends don’t really exist for me. If you want Wednesday and Thursday to be our weekend, then so be it.”
Talia moved closer again, smirking when she noted Faye’s deep breathing. “You have a girlfriend. You shouldn’t even be here.”
“W-we’re not exclusive. It’s only been a few dates.”
Talia’s brow rose. “More than I ever got with you.”
Okay, two could play this game. “And who is to blame for that?”
“Fair enough.”