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My heart instantly starts pounding. "I'm really confused."
Ivy." Brighton reaches for both my hands cradling them in his. "My brother…he's…well…to put it mildly…he's obsessed with you."
"Obsessed?"
"He's been in a string of empty relationships. He's dated so many women over the past few years I've lost count."
"I didn't know."
Brighton looks down at my hands. "Are you sure you want to know all of this?"
I nod.
"It started when he was in high school. He was the typical high school heart throb." He pauses to take a long, slow breath before he continues, "it was one girl after another. He'd date one, bed her and dump her."
I shrug feeling somewhat let down by his admission. I don't speak, hoping he'll elaborate.
"Jax has always been about the conquest. That's not just with women but everything." He scowls and I can see that he's not completely comfortable sharing so many details about his brother.
"I thought as much. He does have that air about him," I offer.
"After his father died, it just intensified." Brighton's eyes dart to the people quickly passing by the car. "He would set a goal for himself and then do whatever it took to achieve it."
"And I'm a goal?" I whisper the words, not wanting to hear them myself.
"You are." He reaches for my hand. "But you're different than the others."
"How so?" I bite my lip feeling the unexpected rush of tears approaching.
He squeezes my hand. "Are you sure you want to know all of this?"
"I have a right to know."
He nods and shifts his body so he's looking directly at me. "There was something different about you. He started talking about you right after he moved back to New York." There's a pause and I realize he's waiting for me to respond.
"He told me that a woman he was dating was wearing one of my bracelets and that he sought out the designer," I offer. I share it with him because it's really all I know about Jax's interest in me.
"That makes sense. He saw a write up in one of the papers about your broken engagement and mentioned you and your jewelry."
"He had a lot of my pieces at his apartment."
"He was fascinated by the beauty of your work. He talked about it constantly. He talked about you constantly."
I feel my pulse quickening. I'm not sure whether to feel flattered or upset by this news.
"He left L.A. to come here to find you."
"The jewelry company..."
Brighton nods. "He told me he was going to do that, but until you came to see me the other day I didn't put two and two together. He convinced Madeline to sell half to him so he could be closer to you."
"But at the gallery...at your showing, that was fate." I'm desperately trying to make sense of everything Brighton is sharing w
ith me.
He hangs his head. "No."
"No?"
