“I apologized—” I flattened my palms on the surface of the desk.

“I’m not talking about you punching Oscar. I couldn’t care less about that. Now, shush, really. It’s not nice to interrupt.”

My jaw dropped.

“I’m talking about that crap when you walked away from me. When you stood there spewing out all that self-loathing bullshit and then once again made the decision for me that I was better off without you.”

I snapped my mouth shut.

“Right. So yeah, I guess that could give a girl a little insecurity complex if I didn’t know you so well. But guess what, Cam? I do. If you wanted someone who was going to run every time you lost your temper or got into a pissing contest with Oscar Hudgens, I can name at least three girls in town who would gladly drive up. But you want me.” She cocked an eyebrow and dared me to deny it.

I didn’t.

She rose from the stool, barefoot and 100 percent comfortable in my house—my life. “You won’t sleep with me because you’re scared. Not me. You.”

I was about ten seconds from clearing this desk and showing her exactly how not scared I was.

She stopped so the desk was between us. “You’re scared that you’ll take that step and open yourself up, and no, I don’t just mean physically.”

My jaw flexed, but I kept silent as those little seeds of frustration grew into a giant fireball of…I didn’t even know, but it wasn’t pleasant.

“You’re scared that eventually I’ll see something I don’t like about you and I’ll walk out. Or that I can’t take the gossip and I’ll leave you. The distance you force between us is all on you, Cam. Not me. You’re not scared of hurting me. You’d die before you let that happen, and we both know it. You’re scared I’ll hurt you.”

I felt the blood drain from my face.

“Yeah. Thought so.”

“You should walk out,” I managed to say through the sawdust in my mouth.

“And you should really stop saying that. I’m standing right here, Cam. There’s nothing you can say to convince me that I should go. Don’t give me your self-righteous crap about hurting me, because you won’t.”

“My temper—”

“Has never been violent in the direction of any woman I’ve ever known. Unless you’re keeping a secret I don’t know about.”

“Of course not,” I snapped.

“You’re scared because you’re in love with me.” She looked me straight in the eye, unflinching and unapologetic.

“I never said that.” My hands slid to grip the edge of the desk.