QUOTE : Rachel squeezed her eyes shut and took two deep breaths in and out before opening them again. But she wouldn’t look at me. “Rachel?” “What?” she snapped. Shield. “Are you feeling okay, do you need something to eat or drink? I don’t have anything here but I can go get something.” “I’m fine.” She took one more deep breath and forced her eyes to my face. “Tell me why you thought that’s why Mason would have me come over here.” “It’s just something we were talking about.” “You were talking about having sex with me?!” “No! Jesus, no. We just—” I groaned and shifted my weight. “He was going over there to be with Candice and told me I needed to get laid. That’s all. Then you showed up saying what you said . . . and I just thought . . . It doesn’t matter.” “Okay. Look, can we get out of your apartment? I’ll go help you pick out furniture or whatever. I just don’t feel comfortable being in here with you right now.” Her chest started rising and falling quickly and I just stood there staring at her. I was scaring her? She was scared of me! That was fucking awesome. I couldn’t think about anything but getting to know her in every damn way possible, and I was freaking scaring her. Perfect. “Yeah, let’s go.” We