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The breath rushed out of him in awhuffand his arms tightened around her. His heart beat tiny pitter-pats in her ear. She would miss the hell out of this.
“We’re good together, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, we are. I’ve had a great time with you.” The best. He’d probably ruined her for all future sex partners. In fact, the idea of a standing rendezvous once or twice a year held a lot of appeal—if he’d be open to something like that. It seemed almost too much to ask, but maybe…
“What if we could be more than just friends with benefits? What if we could be together for real?”
Brooke’s neck and chest started to prickle. “What do you mean?” She pushed out of his arms and rubbed at her itchy skin.
“Don’t you think it means something that we can be apart for years and fit right back into each other’s lives like no time has passed?” He took one of her hands in both of his, holding it tenderly. “What we’ve got is special. I’ve never had a friend or a girlfriend who meant half as much to me as you do. What if we’re meant to be together? Maybe we’ve always been meant to be together. I don’t want to lose you because we were too scared to take a risk.”
“Be serious.” She needed him to be joking.Please be joking.
“I’ve never been more serious in my life.”
She backed away from him like a skittish horse. “This isn’t supposed to be serious. We agreed on that. You don’t even live here.”
“What if I did?”
“There’s no point torturing ourselves over hypotheticals.”
“I could move to LA.”
Her stomach dropped.
“What?” Her voice sounded faint. “You can’t do that. Your job is in New York. Your whole life is there.”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t have to be. I told you I wanted to do something different. There’s a guy I know, he’s starting a clothing line here, and he wants to partner with me. I met with him and his investors this week.”
“What? You did? When?What?” She felt like she was losing her mind. Had she not just spent the whole week with him? Why was now the first she was hearing about this?
“That was him on the phone yesterday, making me a formal offer.”
“So you’d just give up modeling and move here? Just like that?”
“I wouldn’t give it up completely.” He was starting to sound exasperated with her. “I’d be the public face of the company, but I’d also be helping to run it. An equal partner. It’s a chance to help build a business from the ground up.”
“Did you give them an answer already?” This whole clothing line thing sounded risky as hell. How well did he even know these people? And how much money were they asking him to invest?
“I told him I needed to think about it, but I don’t. I want this. And I want to be with you.”
“Whoa.” Brooke started pacing again, unable to keep still. Dylan couldn’t justgive up his career—his successful, million-dollar career, no less—and move across the country to be with her. That was a recipe for disaster if she ever heard one.
His head swiveled from side to side as he followed her movements. “Okay, this isn’t exactly how I’d hoped this would go over.”
She forced herself to stand in one place. “I’m sorry, but you’ve thrown me for a loop here. I thought we were on the same page.”
“What page is that exactly?” He was way beyond exasperated now, verging into actively hurt.
“We’re having a good time, remember? That’s all this is supposed to be.” He’dagreedto those conditions. He’d let her believe he could stick to the terms and everything would be okay.
Things were most definitely not okay.
“I want more,” he said. “And I’m willing to make sacrifices to make it happen.”
Brooke swallowed. Her throat felt like it was lined with nails. “What if I’m not?”
Silence clanged in the air around them.
