Greatest Distraction (Distracted #1) (27 page)

He looked good and I hated it. I wanted to run my fingers through his facial growth, feel it prickle against my fingers before I kissed him. I wanted to throw my arms around him and tell him that I missed him. But I didn’t. Instead I shook my head, moving to shut the door
, but he spoke, halting my movements.

“
Ryen,” he said, his voice just above a whisper. I glanced back up to his face, his eyes begging me to listen to him. I didn’t want to, but for the sake of being better than him, I didn’t slam the door. “Can I come in? Can we talk? We really need to talk.”

“So talk.” Yes, my words were short. I was hurt, angry, and slightly embarrassed about my newfound gaming addiction. It wasn’t what I wanted to be, it just was.

“You left New York.”

“Wow
… observant are we? Yes, seeing as you are now standing on my doorstep in
Georgia
, I would say it’s safe to say we aren’t in Kansas anymore, Toto.”
That
was what he wanted to say to me? Really? He could have said a lot of other things, but that’s what he chose. Wow.

“Why?”

“Why, what?” I snapped back, my frustration growing by the minute. Why was he here? What could he possibly have to say? Actions speak louder than words and, him on my doorstep withstanding, his spoke volumes to what he thought of me. He knew all about what Aaron had done to me, how I’d found out he was cheating on me. I’d told him how it hurt me, how it made it hard for me to trust, and he’d done the exact same fucking thing. As far as I was concerned, he could pretend he was a character in
Mary Poppins
and go fly a freaking kite.

“Why did you leave? Why’d you run?”

“I didn’t run, Dane. I went home – I was only in the city for a vacation, for a distraction. It was time to come home,” I explained, though I shouldn’t have. I didn’t owe him anything.

“You did run. You didn’t even stop and let me talk to you. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve called.” He ran his hands through his hair, longer now than when I’d met him. Now that I was paying a bit more attention, I could see dark circles under his eyes, redness around the edges of his irises. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t as perfect as he seemed, but he sure as hell looked better than me. I was wearing the same yoga pants I’d worn on the plane ride home two days or so ago. The only reason I’d changed my shirt was because I’d dropped salsa on the other when I was in the Little Mermaid land of Kingdom Hearts.

“Did you hear me?” he asked, pulling me from my reverie.

“Um,” I answer
ed, debating on whether or not to tell him everything he’d just said probably fell on deaf ears since I hadn’t been listening. I decided to go for honesty – hell, one of us needed to. “Nope. I wasn’t paying attention.”

Dane groaned and rubbed his forehead. “Can I come inside? It’s really hot out here.”

I thought about it for a moment. What harm could it do, letting him come inside? I could probably even offer him a beer … I’d run out of water and Kool-Aid yesterday. Going to the store had seemed too much work, so I’d broken into the Mich Ultra. Don’t judge me. My heart hurt.

Without answering, I stepped out of the way and waved him inside, shutting the door behind him. His eyes took in the room and I did the same, in a new light, seeing
it as he did. Potato chip bags on the floor in front of the couch, empty beer bottles and glasses piling up on the end table. I swear I wasn’t drunk … if I was I wouldn’t have been kicking ass and taking names, using my Ultima Weapon.
You are such a freaking loser! Stop it. Get a grip on yourself
, the voice inside my head shouted. She had a point … I really was sort of a loser right now.

“Playing a video game? I thought you hated them,” Dane said, ignoring the mess and focusing on the pause screen.

“Um, I never said I
hated
them,” I tried, knowing it was futile. I’m pretty sure I
did
say I hated them.

“No,
Ryen. You said you hated them, that you’d dated too many gamer boys who were too involved in their games to shower, or eat, or pay attention to a real relationship.”

“Okay, okay,” I said, holding my hands up in placation. “Maybe I did hate them, do, even. It was just
… nice to escape from the world for a while.”

“Well, while you were ‘escaping the world’ I was going crazy in it looking for you.”

“Why? I’m just one of the who-knows-how many in your harem of ladies … though you’re very careful to not be pictured with any of them, so good job on that front. Sorry I ruined your perfect record.”

“What are you talking about
, Ryen? This is what I’m talking about. We need to talk, really talk. If you still want me to leave after then I will, but so help me, you’re going to shower before we do anything. You smell like fourteen-year-old boy right now.” Okay … this was very frustrated, starting-to-get-angry Dane.

I started to argue, but got a whiff of myself as I moved. He was right
… I smelled. Moving toward my room, I waved him to the couch. “Make yourself at home. Wait, don’t. You’ve done that in my life already and I’ve seen where that gets me. Just stand for a while. I’ll only be a few minutes.” It came out cruel and meaner than I think I’d intended, but it was still the truth. Him just showing up, making the ‘grand gesture,’ didn’t change much of anything.

At least, that’s what I was telling myself as I went through the motions of showering.
He had another girl in his apartment.
His lips, kissing my neck, his strong hands on my hips.
He had a naked girl in his apartment.
His smile and laugh as we joked and played, how safe I’d felt in his arms.
Another freaking naked, wet girl in his apartment!

Shit. I was going to be in trouble, wasn’t I?

Chapter Seventeen
 

Once I was relatively dry, my hair in a damn ponytail on the top of my head, and dressed in jeans and a gold gypsy-cut top, I felt more myself. And with the feeling of self returning, I was also slightly humiliated. Sure, why wouldn’t he see me at a low point – it wouldn’t have been fair to me for him to see me at my best, would it? Nope. My luck, I tell you, is shit.

I procrastinated as long as I could
, running out of bottles and knickknacks to arrange in my bathroom. Cringing internally, I walked back into the living room, only Dane wasn’t there. Neither was the garbage on the floor or the glasses on the table. The sound of running water drew my attention and I made my way into the kitchen.

There, the man in question stood, rinsing dishes and putting them in the dishwasher, looking very domestic and right in my kitchen. I didn’t want him to look right here, he was my ‘right’ in New York. This was my space
… and when you’re wrong in one city, you’re definitely wrong in another. Still, I couldn’t help but continue to watch him as moved, remembering how just a few days ago I would’ve felt comfortable enough to sidle up beside him. Now I wanted him to say what he was going to, and leave.

“You don’t have to do that,” I said, hiding my embarrassment under a
snarky tone. I didn’t like that he was cleaning my mess – one that I shouldn’t have made to begin with.

“Already done. You smell better.”

He turned to face me and my cheeks heated under his scrutinizing gaze. His eyes moved from my feet to my legs, up from my stomach to my chest, and to my wet hair before remaining still on my face. Desperate to keep space between us, I moved to sit at a barstool on the other side. Dane rested his hands on the granite counter before speaking again.

“
Ryen, why did you run from me?”

“Are you really asking me that question? Really?” He seemed so confused that I’d run. Of course I’d run – well I didn’t
run
, I walked and waited in the rain. There had been another woman in his house, naked and wet, and here he stood eight hundred-plus miles away, asking me ‘why.’

“You should have answered your phone. That wasn’t my girlfriend,” he started
, but I interrupted him.

“Oh, just a booty call? Some hot little thing you call over for times you wanted to stay away from me? I never once stayed at your place
… or used your shower, but little miss tiny towel seemed right at home there.”

“That was Francesca.”

My mind turned for what seemed like forever, trying to place the name. A light bulb went off in my head, remembering it was the woman Gianpaolo was demanding he marry. Oh, that made it even better. The woman he allegedly had no feelings for, didn’t want to be with, yet
she
was the one who stood naked in his house. Great. That’s fantastic news, I felt so much better. Asswipe.

“No,
Ryen, you’re drawing conclusions again. Stop it. Nothing happened between her and I. She’s running,” he said, shaking his head sadly. Sad about the things that were apparently broadcasting on my face, or sad that she was running, I wasn’t sure. I remained silent for a minute before curiosity got the better of me.

“What do you mean ‘she’s running
’?”

“Her and
Giuseppe. I was arranging to get them both out of the country before Dad could find out. If he’d known, or found out, a hit would’ve been put on my half-brother and I wanted him as far away as possible before it happened anyway. Him and the woman
he
loves.”

“That doesn’t explain why she was naked in a towel, dripping wet, Dane.” My words held little venom. His story made some sense, the pieces fitting together like a puzzle, but I didn’t like it. I’d drawn so many conclusions it looked like a Picasso painting in my head. Now he was dripping water and making the colors run. I just didn’t down shift that fast.

“She’d just taken a shower?” he said, the lilt at the end of his words seeming like a
did you really just ask that
sort of question. “Gus got to my house about fifteen minutes after you showed up – she’d been waiting for him. They caught the ten-nineteen flight out of JFK. I could tell you where they stopped for a layover, and where in the world they were actually heading if you don’t believe me, but I’d rather not. I wouldn’t put it past my father to come question you, see if you knew something about it. As it is, if he finds out that
I
did, I’ll probably be on the run too … or hurting pretty bad.”

Well damn. I felt like a grade
A asshole right about now. There wasn’t a power tool big enough or strong enough to remove my foot from my mouth at this point. I was downright sheepish.

“Oh,” I said lamely. What else was I supposed to say? Dane, I thought you were a douche-wipe just like Aaron who didn’t give a fuck about my feelings? That seeing you with another woman hurt worse than anything has ever hurt before, and we barely know each other? That I went a little crazy and lost myself in a gaming world just so I wouldn’t have to face being home and not talking to you, not seeing you? ‘Oh’ was definitely the better option.

“Yeah, oh.” He sighed and moved around the bar to stand in front of me. I could feel his heat, smell this authentic Dane smell.
God, I missed him,
I thought pathetically. How someone can become so important to you in just a couple weeks is ridiculous … but he had. He was.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, wanting to reach out and touch him but unsure of my welcome. If I were
him I would be hurt that someone could think so lowly of me. I couldn’t even deny it – I’d jumped to incredibly wrong conclusions. He surprised me though, taking another step toward me and taking my hand.

“I wish you’d stopped and let me explain. I’m sorry you had to walk in on that – I can only imagine how you felt. Fran had actually told me to run after you, to stop you then, but I couldn’t just leave her. We were scared, nervous,
on pins and needles, that someone on the wrong side of the law could figure out our plan and stop us. We just couldn’t let it happen. I wanted to come after you, so badly. You wouldn’t answer your damned phone either.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” I said again, meaning it. His eyes were so sad, so haunted, and it was because of me. The only time I’d seen this look was when he’d told me about his dad, and his dad’s line of work, and I hated that I was the cause this time. “I’m sorry I could think you’d do something like that – I’m sorry I didn’t ask questions first, run later. I’m sorry you had to come all this way to find me a hot mess.”