I hesitated and then started to turn back for my pants, but his hand shot out and the next thing I knew he’d hauled me into his lap. “Oh no, you don’t. You’re going to tell me why you want to go back to your place. The real reason.”

“I already told you.” I pulled back, and he yanked me forward. We were chest to chest, my knees on either side of his legs, and he had an iron grip on my wrists. My heart was racing as our gazes locked. “Let me go.”

“That’s not the real reason.”

My fingers curled helplessly. “What? Are you also psychic? Did you hit your head on your gun belt?”

One side of his lips curved up. “No. I’m just not blind. Man, this wasn’t how I imagined today was going to go,” he said. “I know you got a lot going on in your head, but we need to talk it out.”

“There’s nothing we need to talk about.” His hold loosened enough that I was able to push off his shoulders to stand. Or try to. The moment my hands connected with his shoulders, he muttered a curse and held me tight.

“That’s such utter bullshit and you know it. There’s one thing I never thought you were, and that’s a coward. But you are acting like one now.”

“What?” I drew back as far as I could. Leaving him would require every ounce of strength I had. That wasn’t weak.

“Don’t do this,” he said again. “Stop acting like a coward.”

“I’m not being a coward! I just don’t want to do this anymore with you. It was fun, but that’s it. I want to go home. I want to move on with my life—­”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, you can lie better than this. You’ve wanted me since you were fifteen and now that you have me you aren’t willing to risk getting hurt for me? What kind of shit is that?”

Whoa. He just called me right on that. “W-­what do you mean getting hurt?”

“You think I don’t know?” He shook his head. “You are afraid, Roxy. Afraid of getting hurt—­ever since what happened to Charlie. You don’t want to feel that kind of pain again. I get that. But you can’t live your whole life like that, throwing everything away—­throwing this away—­just because you think you are going to get hurt. And it’s not just with me. It’s with everything.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.