“It’s just normal, everyday life stuff. Lots of people have been through worse than me,” I told him. When his eyes didn’t leave mine and his thumb swept my cheekbone and that felt so freaking nice, I repeated, “Lots of people.”

“Normal everyday stuff does not make someone retreat from life like you do.”

“I don’t retreat from life. I have a job. Friends. A car –”

Mitch’s hand left my face and planted itself back in the armrest as his next surprising words cut me off and totally flipped me out.

“You’re into me,” he declared.

My breath froze in my throat.

I pushed passed it to whisper, “Pardon?”

“You’re into me,” he repeated.

I straightened in my chair and since he didn’t move I, firstly, had no escape and I, secondly and stupidly, brought my face even closer to his.

“I’m not into you,” I lied.

“Liar,” Mitch called me on it. “You’re so into me you’re shit-scared of me.”

God! I hated it when he figured me out.

“I am not!” I lied again.

He ignored me. “A woman like you, who looks like you, dresses like you, who’s into me does not run away from me, she does not push me away and she does not lie to her friends about me unless she’s for some secret reason shit-scared of me.”

Okay, we were done.

“You need to leave,” I told him.

He continued to ignore me. “What a woman like you who’s not got some secret that makes her shit-scared of me does is make me pizza. She tells me about her life. She asks me about mine. And she doesn’t get pissed as all hell anytime I get close to figuring something out about her.”

“Well, you would know. You’ve had plenty of women ‘into you’ parading in and out of your apartment,” I fired back.

“So, you paid attention,” he returned.

“It was hard to miss.”

“No, Mara, you paid attention.”

He was not wrong about that.

Moving on.

“I will remind you, Mitch, that when I made you that pizza that you said you didn’t care much about but bring up all the time, you had a woman in your apartment.”

“And I’ll remind you, Mara, that I told you I’d be over in fifteen minutes which meant I intended to get rid of her in fifteen minutes so I could be with you.”

“So you could have my pizza!” I snapped.

“No,” he growled, visibly losing patience, “so I could be with you.”

I glared at him. He kept talking.

“And I was here in fifteen minutes but you were gone and when you got back, I came to you and tried to explain and you shut the door in my face.”

“It was late,” I reminded him.

He ignored me again. “I had no idea she was comin’ over. I didn’t want her over. I wasn’t happy she was over because she and I have been over awhile and she just doesn’t get it. But mostly I wasn’t happy she was over because I wanted…to be…with you.”

“Can I ask that we have this conversation another time like…never?” I requested sarcastically.

Mitch ignored me yet again. “Why do you find it so difficult even to consider the fact that I want to be with you?”

“Mitch, please, would you just shut up and leave?” I snapped.

“Yeah, I’ll shut up when you give me an honest answer.”

“I already have,” I lied.

“What was that everyday life thing that you survived?” he asked.

“It wasn’t a big deal,” I answered.

“If it was an everyday life thing that wasn’t a big deal, why won’t you tell me?”

“Because it’s not your business, now will you shut up and go?”

“It isn’t because it’s not my business, it’s something else.”

“God! Will you just shut up and go?”

“Yeah, I will, after you f**kin’ talk to me.”

“Why are you pushing this?” I bit off.

“Why do you think?” he shot back.

“I’ve no idea.”

“Could it be, Mara, because I’m into you?”

I pushed back against the armchair, staring at him, stunned.

Then I felt the shutters snap closed on my soul as I whispered, “Shut up.”

His eyes roamed my face then captured mine and he whispered back, “Christ, you won’t even let that penetrate.”

“Shut up,” I whispered.

“What happened to you?” he whispered back.

“Shut up, Mitch.”

His hand came back to my jaw and he asked gently, “Baby, what happened to you?”

“Shut up.”

His thumb swept my cheek again, God, so sweet, so tender then his fingers sifted back into my hair.

“Did someone hurt you?”

Still gentle.

God. Beautiful.

“Please, shut up.”

“Who hurt you, baby?”

“Shut up.”

His fingers curled around the back of my head, his face moved to within an inch of mine and his soulful eyes were so close. So, so close.

“How did they hurt you?”

That was when I lost it. I couldn’t take anymore. Not with him that close, his deep voice that sweet, his hand on me, his eyes looking into mine like he could see into my soul.

I had to stop the questions. I had to shut him up.

So I did. I lifted both my hands and put them to both sides of his head and I moved up as I pulled him down to me. Tilting my head at the last second, I pressed my lips against his and I did this hard.

Immediately, his arms wrapped around me tight, pulling me to him, locking me close as he lifted up, taking me with him as he straightened. My body tight to his, his head slanting, his mouth opening, mine following suit and his tongue swept inside.

Oh God.

My hands left his head so I could wrap my arms around his neck. He tasted good, he felt good against me and it had been a long time since I’d been kissed. Destry and I broke up over two years ago. I hadn’t even had a date, much less a lover, and definitely no kisses.

And this kiss was a great kiss. Not because Mitch was a Ten Point Five and the impossible was happening and he was kissing a Two Point Five. It was just because it was a great kiss. He knew what he was doing and I liked what he was doing, all of it.

This must have been why one of my hands curled around his neck and went up. My fingers slid into his hair and I was right, it was soft. It was also thick. It felt as beautiful as it looked.