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Preston looked up to the sky, snowflakes catching on his long lashes. The idea that I’d hurt him again gutted me worse than anything I’d ever experienced.
“Preston?” He brought his gaze back to mine, and my breath caught in my throat. He looked beautiful. No, hewasbeautiful. “I said it’s snowing. Aren’t you cold?”
“No. I don’t feel anything.”
The double meaning was as obvious as the white flakes falling around us. I moved closer, but he took a step back.
“Isn’t that what you want to hear?” he asked.
“What? No. Why would you ever think?—”
“That you want me to stand in a room full of people, talking about you and your new boyfriend, and smile and act like I’m notdyinga little every time someone mentions it? Maybe because that was my only option tonight.”
“What other option could there be?” I fired back. “Do you really think I like what’s going on in there? I didn’t expect people to care one way or another if I brought a date.”
Preston’s eyes widened. “Seriously? Were you not listening the other day onourdate? Most eligible bachelor in the city. That ringing a bell? Of course people were going to talk if you brought a date.”
He was right—I hadn’t been thinking about that at all. “But I thought we decided that this was the only way it could be.”
“Right.” He nodded and ran a hand through his hair. “You’re right. This is what we decided. But talking about it and actually watching himtouchyou, Archer…”
Preston shook his head and started to pace the empty alley before he whirled around and pointed to the door of the Elysium.
“It should bemein there.” He bit down into his lip as it began to tremble, and I couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or something more. “Ishould be the one standing beside you in there. Holding your hand and laughing with you…”
He looked away from me, his eyes welling as he whispered, “It should be me.”
I crossed over to him, unable to stay away, and at the sound of my approach he glanced up. But if he wanted to move, he was out of time, because there was no way I couldn’t touch him. Not when he was standing there pouring his heart out to me.
“Archer, don’t?—”
“What?” I took hold of his face and angled it up toward mine. “Don’t tell you that you’re right? That I knew the second you stepped in the building tonight because I could feel you in every single part of my body?”
“Yes.” His eyes beseeched me to stop. “But I don’t want to hear it.”
“I need you to know.”
He put his hands on my chest and gave a gentle shove. “Not when you’re going to go back in there to him.”
He was right, of course. I did have to go back in there to Rodney. But that could wait. This couldn’t, and I wasn’t leaving until I knew he understood how desperately I wished things were different.
“If I could have had you at my side tonight, I would’ve proudly stood there with you. But this isn’t as easy as showing up as each other’s dates, Preston.”
He pulled my hands from his face, that same sad smile from the yesterday returning.“Your date’s waiting for you.”
“And he can keep waiting. Don’t leave like this.”
“Don’t ask me to stay.” He took a step back, his entire demeanor resolute in his decision. “I’m going home.”
“We’re not done here.”
“Aren’t we?”
His words were like a sucker punch to my gut. So final, so unexpected, because I knew he was talking about a whole lot more than this conversation.
“Let’s face it, Archer. He’s perfect for you. The right age, the right pedigree, the right look. I know when I’m in over my head, and I’m drowning here. Thanks, though, this has been…fun.”
He turned on his heel and began to walk away from me, but I grabbed his arm and hauled him back to face me.
