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“What?”
He pressed his lips together and gave a slight shake of his head. “Never mind.”
“No, you can’t do that. You have to tell me.” He couldn’t just leave her hanging like this with her heart thumping against the walls of her chest.
Deep creases sprouted across his forehead. “I don’t want to freak you out.”
“Thisis freaking me out.” Something in his expression unsettled her. He’d always been good at hiding his true feelings behind a cheerful mask—they both were—but he wasn’t doing it now. The emotions were leaking through, seeping in through the cracks around the edges.
“It’s just…” He looked at the floor and then back up again, his eyes uncertain as they found hers once more. “You’ve always been my fantasy. I thought you knew that.”
She blinked as his confession hung in the air between them. “Come on.” She couldn’t help scoffing. It was too hard to accept. It went against everything she’d told herself.
His gaze was unblinking as he watched her. “It’s true.”
“No it’s not.” Her voice rose with disbelief that came out sounding like anger. “I was right there. Foryears. And you never looked twice at me except—” She stopped.
Except prom night.
When he’d accidentally kissed her and pulled away so fast he nearly sprained something.
Dylan’s gaze flicked to her mouth, as if they were both reliving the same moment. “I wouldn’t let myself go there.”
“Why not?” Brooke’s lips tingled with the memory of that long-ago kiss—and the one tonight.
His mouth twisted with something that almost looked like bitterness. “Because I was the guy who looked out for you. I wanted to be the one person you could always trust not to hurt you, not the creep who used our friendship to put the moves on you.”
Her heart gave a reckless thump. “Oh.”
“You used to call me your hero. Remember that? I liked being that guy for you. The one you always turned to. I didn’t want to lose that. I didn’t want to loseyou, and I almost did in the back of that fucking limo on prom night when I overplayed my hand.”
“Overplayed?” She took a step toward him as the blood rushed in her ears. “Did you think I didn’t like it when you kissed me?”
Pain flashed across his face, slicing through her gut like a knife. “The way you pulled away, it was pretty clear you didn’t.”
“I didn’t pull away!Youpulled away!” She remembered the humiliation of that moment with perfect clarity, as if it had happened yesterday. The way it had felt when he’d jerked away from her, stammering an apology. The look of panic on his face as he’d distanced himself.
“Only because of the way you flinched when I kissed you!” His voice had risen to match hers.
“Me? I didn’t flinch!” she protested, taking another step toward him.
“You did!” he insisted. “I’ll never be able to forget the way you stiffened when I touched you.” His angry heat felt like her own. They were close enough she could feel it seeping into her skin.
“If I stiffened, it was only because it was unexpected! You took me by surprise!” They were practically shouting at each other, and she forced herself to speak more softly. “That doesn’t mean I didn’t like it.”
His chest rose and fell as his expression shifted to confusion and then incredulity. “Didyou like it?”
“Yes.” She was close enough now to catch his scent. It caught at her, setting the surface of her skin on fire. “I thoughtyoudidn’t like it. When you said we should pretend it never happened, I thought that meant you regretted it.”
His eyes were wide and pained as he blinked at her. “I did regret it, because I thought you didn’t want me to kiss you.”
She couldn’t look away from him. She didn’t want to. The heat radiating off him buffeted her in waves. Her skin prickled as tendrils of desire coiled through the air between them.
“Well, fuck.” Brooke reached for him, her hands cupping his face to drag his lips down to hers.
Dylan’s hands wrapped around her waist as his tongue plunged into her mouth. She closed her eyes, breathing him in. Clean cotton, crisp cologne, and the unmistakable scent of his skin.
With every hitching breath, her breasts swelled against his chest, ratcheting up the heat between them. She pressed against him, needing more, wanting all of him, craving his touch on her body. She felt weak and light-headed, but Dylan held her steady, one of his arms locked around her waist as the other roamed up her back to cradle the nape of her neck.
