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Halfway up the stairs, he stopped and gripped my shoulders. “What were you thinking?”
“It was just a stupid game.”
“I don’t want any other guys looking at you.”
“Brad, I’m on a campus full of guys. They’re going to look.”
“Not at your bra.”
“I told you, it was—”
“Truth or dare. I get it. Why didn’t you just answer the question, Daphne?”
Chapter Forty-Six
Brad
“It was too personal,” she said, “and it would have invited a lot of other questions I didn’t want to answer.”
“What was it?”
She blushed. “They wanted to know where I’d been this weekend.”
“Why didn’t you tell them? Are you embarrassed?”
“Of course not. I loved this weekend. But it was so special to me, and if I’d told them, they’d have wanted to know all about you, whether we…you know. I don’t know them well enough to let them into that part of my life. It’s too personal. Too special.”
Her lips trembled a bit. Had I frightened her? Granted, the thought of her taking her shirt off in front of that degenerate unnerved me more than a little. Okay, it pissed me off and sparked a jealous anger. In my heart, I knew she was innocent of any wrongdoing, but still, I was livid.
I grabbed her in the stairwell and crushed our mouths together.
Mine, I said with that kiss. You’re mine. You’ll always be mine.
She opened for me, and in a fit of jealous rage, I groped her breasts through her shirt.
She pulled back. “Brad…”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s just… I can’t deal with the fact that he saw them.”
“He didn’t. I had my bra on.”
“Still. I hate it, Daphne. I hate it.”
She cupped my cheek. “I have no interest in Dirk. I actually think he’s kind of a dick.”
“Then why—”
She covered my lips with her fingers. “It was a stupid game. That’s all. If it means that much to you, I’ll never play it again. It was awkward, anyway. I hardly know these girls.”
Yes. That’s what I want. Never play the game again.
But I couldn’t say the words. For the first time, the four years’ difference in our ages became crudely apparent. She was barely out of high school, and I was almost through college. Games like truth or dare and spin the bottle seemed like a lifetime ago. In fact, I’d never played either.
“It’s okay,” I said. “You were just trying to get to know the people on your floor. I understand.” Sort of.
“I did the best I could. I made her say it could be anywhere on the guys’ floor, which meant I could minimize who saw me.”
“Why him? Why not Prince Charles?”
“Ennis? He wasn’t home. He was my first pick, after a closet or the laundry room, but we couldn’t find a closet, and someone was using the laundry room.”
I let out a breath I’d only just noticed I was holding. “All right.”
“I don’t want anyone else, you know.”
I smiled like a moron. “I don’t either.”
“I meant it when I said I thought fate had brought us together.”
“I meant it too, even though I never really believed in fate.”
“You don’t?” She smiled. “I do. I have to.”
“What do you mean?”
“My life has been…a struggle in some ways. I have to believe fate has something better in store for me from now on, and when I met you, I had the strong feeling that I’d found my destiny.”
I kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry you’ve had a struggle. That year couldn’t have been easy.”
“Parts of it weren’t. But parts of it I just don’t remember. I’ve promised myself I’ll never go down that rabbit hole again. I’ll stay happy. I’ll find the sunrise in everything in my life.”
The warmth of a sunrise glowed in her. She glowed. She dazzled. Daphne Wade was so innocent, yet she knew so much more about life than anyone I’d met so far in my twenty-two years. This woman was my destiny, my soul mate. She was right. Fate had brought us together.
I trailed my finger over the apple of her cheek and down her jawline. “Daphne.”
She met my gaze. “What, Brad?”
“I love you. I love you so much.”
She widened her eyes. “Oh.”
“I know it’s ridiculous. We’ve known each other for a week. It doesn’t make any sense.”
She reached up and laid her soft hand over mine. “It makes perfect sense. I love you too.”
“You’re so young,” I said.
“So are you.”
I chuckled softly. “You’re right. I am. I didn’t expect this so soon in my life.”
“I didn’t either, but it feels right, doesn’t it?”
“God, yes,” I said, relishing the warmth of her hand on mine. “It feels so right.”
I wanted to drop to my knees then and there and ask her to spend her life with me, but I didn’t want to scare her away. We had a lifetime ahead of us—a lifetime of love and children and happiness.
