The Deal Taker (Book III)

Chapter Fifteen - Breathe

Surprisingly, he began to laugh. "It's true, you do speak your mind quite a lot. Too much in some cases, such as your urine color."

"What? It was practically clear. I've never seen it that way before," I defended.

"But you never talk about the important things, such as what happened last night."

Another groan was building in my throat. "Some things don't need to be said."

"But some things do need to be said," he argued lightly.

He was never going to let this go. I let out a long sigh and roughly shrugged my shoulders. "What? What do you want to know?"

Matthew wasn't too pleased with my attitude, but his curiosity was stronger than his annoyance. "Are you just going to pretend it never happened?"

Yes. "I don't know."

"Well, because you have no idea how you thought about last night, I guess I'll explain how I felt."

I just wanted to crawl under any piece of furniture in the house and stay there until this was all over. I hated the whole feelings thing, and I especially hated when someone told me theirs because I didn't really have any.

"Last night marks itself as the greatest night I've ever had, and you and I both know I have had many, many nights in my existence. It would be a tragedy to go back to our relationship before with us barely speaking and occasionally holding hands."

My eyes dropped from his and I honestly wasn't sure how to reply. Admittedly, my eyes did go to the oven window to check if the pizza was ready yet.

"If last night was just a one-time deal, I'll live with it, though rather painfully. But if it wasn't, I would like to know."

The buzzer on the oven went off, nearly making us ram into each other at the sudden noise. I nearly cried tears of joy at the interruption and quickly began to pull it out and put it on a plate, ignoring the question entirely.

Matthew let out a huff mixed with a groan and rubbed the back of his neck. "Fine. You can ignore it all and forget the entire night, if you wish. But I can't." He brushed past me and headed towards the door.

I don't know why I didn't just let him leave. It would have been easier, and I wouldn't have to say anything. But I actually felt, well, bad. He's been so nice to me, so sweet, I couldn't just be a total jerk in all of this. I might not get the whole feelings and love thing, but I can't just treat his like their meaningless. Words spilled out of me I didn't even think about, and I definitely didn't think about the meaning of them until after they were said. "Wait," I called when he was at the door.

Matthew sighed and slowly turned towards me, his expression full of exhaustion and frustration. "What?" he demanded.

I couldn't look him in the eye as I spoke, so instead I focused on his feet. "Last night, well, it wasn't bad," I practically mumbled lamely. "And I wouldn't be totally against it if we were to repeat it in the near-future."

He raised a brow and the frustration melted away and was replaced with relief. "I don't think I could have gone back to how it was before."

My lips pulled into a genuine smile and I wrapped my arms around myself. "I know, I'm that good."

Matthew rolled his eyes and took several strides towards me until he was towering over me. His fingers went under my chin and tilted my head up so he could kiss me. I smiled against his lips and pressed a hand against his bare stomach just to feel the abs because it'd be such a waste not to.