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In fact, seeing Bryn standing there with flowers, a box from the nearby donut shop, and her belly looking just the teeniest bit soft, twisted me up inside. Every bit of anger I was feeling the night before and leading all the way up until this moment disappeared.
My eyes kept going back to her belly. She was only a couple of months along at this point, so it wasn’t like she was really showing yet. There wasn’t anything round or pronounced about her stomach. But there was definitely a change. It made everything so much more real. She was really having my baby.
“Nick,” she said, taking a step closer. “There’s something I need to say to you.”
“You could have called me,” I said.
She shook her head. “No. After what happened last night, I needed to talk to you in person.”
“Let’s go into my office,” I said.
I started toward the hallway, but Bryn shook her head again. “No. I can say it right here.” She drew in a breath and let it out resolutely. “Nick, I am so sorry for the way I reacted to you last night. I know it wasn’t easy for you to say that to me, and there’s no excuse for me to have walked out the way I did.”
“I understand,” I started, but she held up a hand to stop me.
“Please,” she said. “Just let me get this out. When you said that to me, it totally took me by surprise. That’s actually a massive understatement. I never would have expected for you to feel that way about me. I was so scared when you said it, because I figured you had to be just reacting to the emotions of what was going on or saying what you thought I wanted to hear. I didn’t think it was at all possible that it could be true.”
“Why not?” I asked, surprised to hear her say that.
“Because I’m a mess. I’m a few months out of a shit relationship with a sociopath. I have, up until now, had horrible taste in men, and I’m a hormonal, emotional wreck. You deserve more.”
It probably wasn’t the appropriate response, but I couldn’t help but laugh at that. It just sounded so ridiculous that she would worry about not being good enough for me.
I stepped up close to her, making sure she was looking directly in my eyes so there would be no question about what I was going to say, or the meaning behind it. “Bryn, I love you. I meant it when I said it last night. And I mean it now. I love you. Wherever you are, that’s where I’m supposed to be, and it’s where I want to be.”
Bryn smiled, tears starting to shimmer in her eyes. Her shoulders relaxed and I realized she was shaking slightly, like she’d been holding tight until she found out what I was going to say.
I looked back at Bryn and saw her glance down, then back up at me, the tip of her tongue touching her bottom lip just slightly. I was about to accept her apology and suggest I take the rest of the day off work so we could go back to my place for some makeup sex when the door opened. Bryn looked over and drew in a sharp breath, her body tensing up.
That reaction told me everything I needed to know. I didn’t even need to look at the door to know it was Justin. Gently resting my hand on Bryn’s arm, I guided her a couple of steps back so that I could put myself between her and him. He wouldn’t get close to her.
The look on the other man’s face was somewhere between smug and angry, like he was furious at her for coming here to see me but feeling pretty self-important and satisfied with himself for being there. It was a message to her. He had clearly followed her here to my office. He wanted her to know she didn’t have the option of not being near him, not paying attention to him.
His goal was to make sure he was always right there, never far away from her. Bryn wasn’t going to have the opportunity to put him behind her and forget their relationship, because he was going to haunt her life and make it miserable. That was his tactic. It was completely clear now. She didn’t think Justin had anything to hold over her so he could blackmail her, but he didn’t need anything. He had himself.
He could follow her, aggravate her, and harass her until she couldn’t take it anymore, then he’d have her right where he wanted her. And her money in his pocket.
That wasn’t going to happen. Not as long as I was anywhere around to stop it.
I crossed the lobby to Justin in two steps, pulled back, and planted a punch directly on his jaw. The impact dropped him to the ground. Bryn gasped, nearly dropped the flowers and box of donuts out of her hands. I turned around and put an arm around her waist, sweeping her up against me and closing my mouth over hers for a deep, hard kiss.
