“Why, Alba?” This was a lot harder to do now that he wasn’t trying to drive us through an apocalyptic storm and could look me in the eye when I answered.

“I like Dallas.” I lifted a shoulder as I thought about how for the first time in years I didn’t have to resolve a family crisis on a weekly basis. “I have breathing room here, and with me no longer just a phone call away my family has had to deal with their shit for once.” He made a sound of understanding but didn’t say anything. Didn’t try to pick apart my complicated feelings. When lightning cracked across the sky and the pellets ricocheting off the roof we were under intensified, instead of getting on his phone and calling for whatever well-compensated cavalry he probably had on speed dial, he just slid his seat back, and reclined, like he was expecting to be here for a minute.

That was something I liked about Theo: as much of a control freak as he could be, when he had to sit one out, he did. He did not lose his temper or waste his energy on trying to change things he could not control. I guessed that was what it was like for a person who knew he had the resources to alter outcomes he didn’t like.

“What if I want your chaos?”

I’d been so deep in my thoughts it took me a moment to really hear what he’d said. Once I did, I snapped my head up and tried to see what I could read from his face in the dim light of the car. When I looked into his eyes, I felt like I could get washed away by all that he was offering me.

“You say that now, but the shine will fade very quickly.” I braced for his frustrated response. For him to tell me he was done trying to talk sense into me. But like a bubble popping, all the tension seemed to go out of him and the asshole laughed at me.

Which obviously pissed me off, but then he leaned in, slid his fingers into my hair and brushed a kiss against my cheek. “What am I going to do with you?”

I had an answer, a biting one. It was on the tip of my tongue that I was not his to do a damn thing with. But every word melted away in the heat of his searing touch.

“Theo, we’re—”

He took my mouth then, his tongue insinuating its way inside in that languid, drugging way he kissed me. Like he wanted to slither right into the marrow of my bones.