Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
Lexi
I sense him before I hear him, before I even see him. “You going back to Montgomery?”
“I am,” I say as I turn around to face him, taking another couple steps backwards.
I try not to react to the manly ruggedness facing me.
He’s been working all day, his shirt is off and tossed over his shoulder.
The dark locks of his hair stick up from him continuously running his fingers through it.
It’s a warm day, and I imagine he was ready for a shower and a long night’s sleep, but honestly he looked better than he should after a day a hard labor.
“It’s late,” he adds with a smirk.
“It is,” I reply. Reaching out to steady myself, I place my hand on the top of my car.
“But I’ve driven back and forth more times than I can count.
To which most of those trips were made late at night.
Later than tonight, with a few drunk girls in the car laughing and howling too, so I’m sure I’ll be fine. ”
“All I’m saying is that you could stay at my place if you’d like.”
I scrunch up my brows at him and instantly he laughs. “What?”
“I think I’ll be safer driving on the dark country roads.” I turn around and pull open my car door.
“Are you trying to tell me that I can’t be trusted?” Bennett places his hand on my hip and I feel my heart race. My pulse quickens, my hands tremble, and I do all I can to hide my reaction.
“I trust you,” I confess. Bennett isn’t a bad guy. It was never about him being a bad guy. It was timing and ours was so far off that it all backfired in our faces.
“Then why can’t you stay at my place?”
“Because I don’t trust me.” The words burn as I hold my breath when he steps closer. “Remember when I told you I didn’t want to love you, Bennett?”
“I do.” His breath heats the back of my neck.
“That is a battle I’ve lost, and right now, what I need it some time to come to terms with the fact that the plan I set for myself has been shattered.”
“What plan is that, Lex?”
“The plan to never allow myself to fall for you again.”
“Hey.” He turns me around to face him, looking into my eyes. Cupping the side of my face his expression shows safeness, as I lean into his touch.
“I should have known when I allowed myself to feel like that was actually a possibility that I was lying to myself.”
“I can’t tell you what to do, but what I can tell you as that if you let me in, fully, I promise to keep you safe. I promise I’m not the same Bennett I was six months ago.”
“I hope that isn’t true,” I say, surprising him as his forehead scrunches up in confusion. “Because I loved you then, and I love you now. I don’t want you to be different Bennett, I just want you to be sure.”
He holds my stare.
“I want you to know what you want, I want you to—”
“I want you,” he interrupts me and suddenly his lips are on mine.
A sweet gentle kiss. “I want you, Lexi,” he says again with his forehead resting to mine.
“I’m more sure of that than I am of anything else in my life.
You are such a beautiful woman, both inside and out, that was never a question.
When I am with you, even if we are sitting in my brother’s backyard fifteen feet apart and not even talking, I feel calm. ”
“Then all I ask is that you give me a little time.”
He nods.
“Slow and easy,” I add with a smile. “And that means no late-night sleepovers.”
When he chuckles and wraps his arms around me, hugging me close, I feel like the heaviness of the last ten minutes begins to lift.
“I’ll give you what you need, Lex,” he whispers, still holding me. “That remains true no matter what the end result is. All I want is for you to be happy. Whatever that takes, your happiness is what matters to me the most.”