The Virgin’s Guide to Misbehaving (Bluebonnet #4)(68)
Author: Jessica Clare

“I know,” she said, pressing her palms to her forehead and looking just as distraught as him. “I know it was an awful thing to do, but I didn’t know how else to get you back here so we could talk about you and me!”

“You and me?” Ah hell. If there was no baby, he had no excuse to be around her at all. “There can’t be a you and me, Elise. You need to give up and find someone better than me.”

She smacked a fist into the bedding. “Stop saying that, Rome! I’m so sick of hearing you talk down about yourself.”

“This is a hell of a joke to play on a man, Elise.” He shook his head and began to head for the door again.

“No!” she said in a panicked voice, and to his surprise, she barreled past him to press her body against the door of her cabin. “You’re not leaving until we talk.”

He looked down at her, at the tangles spilling over her shoulders, her br**sts heaving under the thin material of the T-shirt, ni**les pressing against the fabric. He could barely see a glimpse of bright pink panties. His c**k reacted to her nearness again, and he forced himself to ignore it. “I don’t want to talk to you if you’re just going to try and manipulate me. I can’t stand that.”

“Because people do that to you all the time, don’t they?” She gasped, a hand flying to her mouth. “Oh shit. I’ve made this worse, haven’t I? God, I am so stupid!”

He shook his head. “Stop that. Elise, just let me leave, okay? Clearly this was a bad idea.”

“No,” she said, clinging to his shirt and blocking his way to the door. “I’m not going to be sorry, because it got you here with me, okay? You’re just going to have to suck it up and deal.”

He gave her a look of surprise. Tough love coming out of his sweet, giving Elise? That was a new one. “That was a shitty thing you did.”

“And it was shitty of you to abandon me and ignore all my calls, so now we’re even.”

To his surprise, he found himself smiling down at her. His shy Elise was standing up to him and giving him lip? That was so . . . sexy.

She stared up at him, her gaze serious. “Rome . . . I know about your past.”

Sickness churned in his gut, but he somehow managed a half-grimace that he hoped looked like a smile. “Guess it had to come out at some point.”

She said nothing, simply watched him with shining eyes.

He jerked away, turning and pacing across the room. Great. Just when he thought things couldn’t get more f**ked-up. “How did you find out? You run a background check on me or something?” So much for trust.

Elise leaned against the door. “Actually, my brother did. And he showed it to me.”

“Figures,” he murmured. Should have known. Grant had been waiting to nail him with the information after all. Rome paced, staring at the floor, at the wall, anywhere except at her. He couldn’t look at her. Not right now.

God damn it, he felt embarrassed. Why had she called him back here? So she could rub it in his face?

“You should have told me.”

He laughed at that, shaking his head. “It’s not something you ease into a conversation. Hey, how are you doing? Did you know I served four years in Huntsville? Gee, hope this doesn’t change your opinion of me.” His voice was sarcastic, bitter.

“I wasn’t trying to pry,” she said quietly. “I only found out because I wasn’t sure why you . . . abandoned me.” He hated to hear the wobble in her voice. “Grant wanted me to understand . . . the bigger picture.” She took a deep, shaky breath. “He’s been trying to convince me that you’re not right for me, and that you’re dangerous, but I just keep telling him that I love you and your past doesn’t matter to me.”

He stilled. She still loved him? “Elise—”

“I know what you’re going to say,” she interrupted. “That you aren’t good enough for me and that same old song and dance you constantly trot out all the time. I know you went to prison for four years. I know your credit’s shit. I know you have a record. And I know on paper it looks really, really bad.” She paused, and then added softly, “And I know none of that is you. Never has been. Never will be. You’re not a dealer or a scam artist. You’re just one person, very alone, trying to find a place in the world. And I know what that’s like.”

Rome stared at the wall, unable to turn around and look at her. His eyes were burning rather suspiciously, but he blinked rapidly to quell any tears. He was a man, damn it. He didn’t f**king cry.

Especially not when a girl told him that she believed in him. That the worst about him wasn’t true.

No one ever believed in him. They just took one look at his appearance, at his record, and they assumed the worst. That Rome Lozada, aka John Lozada the third, was exactly the shitbird that showed on paper.

“Elise,” he said, and hated how hoarse his voice was.

Her arms went around him from behind, locking around his torso, and he felt her cheek press against his back. “I never thought it was you. Not for an instant. And when I talked to Jericho—”

“God damn it, I knew it—” he began.

“Hush,” she said with a light smack to his chest that surprised him and amused him at the same time. “I refused to take no for an answer. He can’t be blamed. But he did tell me about . . . your family. And your childhood. And your mother, and that you took the fall for her. It just confirmed everything I knew about you. That you’re a good guy who came from mixed-up people who tried to drag you down. And you’re trying to rebuild yourself into someone new.”

He swallowed hard.

Her hands continued to caress him, wrapped around him, her cheek pillowed on his upper back. “Just because I’m shy doesn’t mean I don’t know what I want, Rome. When I told you I loved you, I meant it. It’s never changed.”

His throat ached. “You deserve better than me.”

“You and I both know that’s not true,” she murmured, her hands gliding up and down his chest, as if she couldn’t get enough of touching him. It was strangely intimate to have her behind him, caressing him, when he couldn’t see her face, couldn’t know what she was thinking. “How could I possibly deserve better than a man who is sexy, kind, patient, wonderful, and makes a scarred virgin with lopsided shoulders feel like she’s the most beautiful woman in the world when she’s with him?”