DIESEL POV
The room went dead quiet the second she said it.
“Stay.”
I looked at her. She wasn’t looking back anymore. Her eyes were glued to her lap, staring hard at the blanket like it had suddenly become the most interesting thing in the world. Her fingers were fidgeting—twisting together, letting go, then twisting again. Her shoulders were pulled in tight and her cheeks were going pink. It was that shy, guilty look girls get when they think they’ve just made a fool of themselves. She was avoiding my face completely, acting like if she didn’t see me, maybe I’d forget she spoke.
And damn it… she looked cute doing it.
The way she was already beating herself up inside her head, shrinking smaller by the second. It was almost funny how someone who’d stared down thugs and run from debt co
