“Why would you want to cover yourself, you cold?” he asks, his voice soft and gentle.
Wrinkling my nose, I stare up at him before I speak. “Because I’m naked and I have flaws. Then there’s the fact that you’re leaking from inside of me and I need to go and clean up, but I don’t want to walk into the bathroom so that you can see all those previously mentioned flaws.”
He stares at me for a moment, blinking a couple of times before his lips twitch into a small smile. “You’re cute as fuck, you know that?”
“I’m being serious,” I state.
He snorts. “Yeah, but it’s cute. You don’t have flaws, Tullie, and even if you did, I saw all that shit up on stage with everyone else in town,” he snaps.
Shaking my head, I try to push away from him, but he doesn’t allow it. He keeps a firm hold on me, keeping me close to his side.
“The stage lights hide all of that,” I inform him.
He shakes his head, his eyes dancing and twinkling in the glow of the light that I always leave on coming from the bathroom.
“If you had flaws, the stage lights would highlight them, but the fact is that you don’t, and you never did.”
My stomach immediately twists in my belly and I feel horrifyingly sick. Shaking my head, I try again to push away from him, but again, he doesn’t let me. Louis dips his chin, his lips so close to mine that I find myself instantly wishing that he would kiss me.
“Not a single flaw, Tulip,” he rasps before his lips brush mine.
LOUIS
I want to talk to her, to go into depth about why she rejected me the way that she did when she so obviously likes me. It can’t just be the race thing that I originally thought, can it? I mean it wouldn’t be the first time that I was some chick’s dirty little secret. But I can usually spot those kinds of women from a mile away now. Tulip just doesn’t strike me as manipulative like that.
Holding her, I’m afraid that if I loosen my grasp that she’ll pull away from me again. I’m going to get her to open up to me, at least a bit tonight. I have to.
“Tell me, Tulip. Why did you push me away?”
There’s a moment of silence. Her body doesn’t fight against me and I lie there wondering if she’s going to say anything at all when she suddenly starts to speak. But she doesn’t begin with telling me why she pushed me away, instead, she opens up more than I could ever have imagined.
“I met Joey when I was thirteen years old, did you know that?” she asks.
Lifting my hand, I begin to play with the ends of her longer hair. “I didn’t, baby.”
She hums. “Freshman in high school and he was sophomore. It was my first day of school and he walked right up to me and said, ‘I’m Joey and I’m your boyfriend,’ all while wearing this stupid confident boy grin.”
I can’t help but chuckle, thinking that it sounds a lot like me at that age. “Then what happened?”
“We were together from that moment on,” she says, shrugging a shoulder. “He’d break up with me off and on and then I’d find out that he had gone on dates with some of the older girls. He’d get what he wanted from them, then come back to me. It became a habit, so much so, that I was numb to it and at fourteen I finally gave in, in hopes that he would stay with me.”
“Did he?” I ask, already knowing the answer. Douchebags like that don’t stay once they get what they want.
She snorts. “Nope. This continued throughout our entire relationship. We were on one of our breaks when I met you. I thought it was over for good. He left town and he’d never done that before, but honestly, I was okay with it. I was tired of being the only one who worked and the only one paying any bills. All he did was sit on the couch day in and day out. Watching television, playing games, doing whatever it was he did while I was out working.”
“Why’d you push me away, Tulip? He come back and sweet talk you?” I ask.
I feel wetness gather on my chest and I know that she’s crying. I don’t push her to speak right away, I decide to wait. She’s not someone that you can push, she needs to take her time and with me, she can have all the fucking time in the world, as long as she’s right next to me when she’s taking it.
“No, he didn’t. It was just after that night, I knew without a doubt that I couldn’t be with someone like you,” she whispers.
“Because I’m half-black?” I ask.
There’s a pause and I close my eyes knowing without a doubt that’s exactly what she meant. Now I know my gut was right when she said it months ago, I was just hoping that I was so fucking wrong.
“Louis?” she asks.
I release my hold on her and am surprised when she pushes up on my chest. Opening my eyes, I look up at her. Watching her, I’m struck speechless not just by how fucking gorgeous she is with her hair falling down around her face, but also by how surprised and sad she looks staring down at me.
“You really thought that’s what I meant? That I cared that your skin tone was a couple shades darker than my own?”
“Won’t be the first or the last time, Tulip.”
She shakes her head, her hair flying everywhere. “Well, that’s not the kind of person I am, Louis. I’m offended that you would even say something like that, let alone think that about me,” she snaps.
“You said you didn’t want to be with someone like me…”
Tulip’s lips drop open, then snap closed. Her eyes narrow and she slaps me in the chest. “I meant someone famous, sexy, and so sweet that he makes my teeth ache. Joey is the only man that I’ve ever been with other than you, and you’re so far above me it’s intimidating.”
Blinking, I can’t help myself. I burst out laughing at her ridiculous explanation of someone. Lifting my arms, I wrap my hands around her back and tug her against my chest. “Fuck.” I laugh. “I’m an asshole.”
“No shit,” she snaps again, her face nuzzling my neck.
I hum, my hands running up and down her back. “I’m sorry, Tullie. I just assumed. I mean this is a small town in Texas and I’ve heard a few murmurs around town.”
“Well not from me.”
Shaking my head, my arms flex around her. “No baby, not from you,” I rasp. “But your explanation is still shit. I’m a little famous, but there aren’t any paparazzi following me around. I’m not that sweet, and if I stopped working out, I wouldn’t be built like this.”
“I’m five-foot-three and I have cellulite,” she whispers against my throat.
Tangling my fingers in her hair, I gently pull her face against my neck and smile at the way her face is pink with embarrassment.
“I’ve seen everything that you have, Tullie. Nothing on your body turns me off, so you can stop that shit. I like you just the way you are. Honest to fuck, I liked you the way you were too, and I wouldn’t mind if you put a few more pounds back on.” I grin up at her. She shakes her head, her lips turning up into a grin. “Why’d you go back to him?” I try asking.
Tulip’s eyes shift to the side as she shrugs one of her shoulders. “He was comfortable, he promised to change and this time he gave me a ring. It didn’t happen.”