Ruthless Creatures by J.T. Geissinger

out of my head, and I’ve tried. Hard. It was useless. So I gave
up trying.
“I’m not going to play games with you. I won’t try to keep
you guessing. I’ve told you what I feel and what I want. I’ll
keep doing that until you feel safe enough to take the next step
or you’ve had enough of it and tell me to fuck off.
“There’s no need to be nervous around me. I’m the least
unpredictable man you’ve ever met. What I want from you
won’t change if you say the wrong thing. It won’t change if
you gain weight or cut your hair or decide to go vegan. It
won’t change even if you say you never want to see me again
and we go our separate ways. I’d honor that request, but it
wouldn’t make me stop wanting you. But you should know…”
He hesitates. “You should know that I’m not a good man.”
I’m locked in his embrace. My heart is beating like a
hammer. I feel like the floor has dropped out from under my
feet, or that I’m tumbling freefall through space, and it’s all
because of his words and his smell and his warm, strong body
pressed against mine.
If and when he kisses me, I’m toast.
“A bad man would never warn a woman he wanted that he
wasn’t good.”
Frustrated by that, he shakes his head. “It’s not hyperbole.
It’s the truth.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You should.”
“What if I said I didn’t care?”
“Then I’d say you were being foolish.”
We stare at each other, nose to nose, both of us breathing
raggedly. It would only take a slight bend of his neck for his
mouth to be on mine.
Suddenly, I want that so much, it leaves me breathless.
“You promised you’d never hurt me. Was that the truth?”