Rude Awakening

Air escaped my lungs as I stared at her. The color on her cheeks deepened, and those lips that had just spoken formed the most gorgeous smile. A bubble of warmth formed in my chest, melting every screwed-up inch of me. She was the cause of it. She had given me a taste of something unimaginable and insanely addictive. Something I wasn't sure I deserved...

She studied me—studied and waited—but I wasn't ready to give her the reply she wanted. I wanted her in my life. I didn't want to lose her. I cared about her. But those words had never been in my dictionary, and I was certain that letting them sound out would not make them real.

I didn't think that pronouncing empty syllables would do any good, and they sounded exactly that way—empty—when I heard them in my head. Nonetheless, they were on the tip of my tongue, and, for the first time in my life, I seriously considered saying them out loud.

I didn't want to hurt her. It wasn't her fault that she had fallen in love with a bastard who had