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She couldn’t think. Shadow Walker had just confessed his feelings for her in a song. No…Jalen had. The man she’d spent the last three days with. The man she wanted more than anything.
But—did she love him? Her head told her no. It was impossible to fall in love with someone that quickly. And yet, her heart wanted nothing to do with her head. Her heart yearned for the man on stage. All she wanted to do was take him in her arms and tell him it was okay, that she would love him no matter what. He didn’t have to be afraid of taking off his mask.
She groaned and turned from him. How could she have let herself fall in love with Shadow Walker? She was supposed to be exposing him, not wondering if their babies would have blonde or brown hair. This was such a mess.
Jalen stood from his stool and waved to the crowd. She stared at him, panic enveloping her. He was coming toward her. And now she was going to have to react to his confession. The closer he got, the more her mind shouted at her to do something. Say something. But she was rooted to the spot.
He stopped when he was in front of her, his jaw working like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t quite get it out.
“Here,” she said, shoving his bottle of water at him. “Drink.”
And now she was resorting to one-word communications. Nice. Maybe she could just grunt next time. You know, in case she didn’t look enough like a neanderthal.
Jalen took the bottle from her. “That was my last song. And since I worked the crowd last night, we’re free to leave.”
“Are we?” She felt the weight of his gaze on her as she shifted her feet. “Okay, then. Let’s go.” All of her courage from before had slipped away. Her heart thumped as she tried to think of an excuse to get away. She turned and climbed down the stage steps. “If you don’t need me for anything else…”
He fell into step beside her. “I think we need to talk.”
Oh, no. Not talking. That was probably not a good idea. Not when she was so unsure of what she was going to say or do next. Just his presence beside her was making her quake. She wanted to grab him by his shirt and kiss him again. It was totally a bad idea for her to be alone with him, talking or doing anything else.
She swallowed, then decided to make a joke out of it. “That sounds like you want to break up with me.” She laughed, only it came out a nervous giggle, kind of like an insane person.
“Quite the opposite.”
“The opposite? You want to break down with me?” Another insane giggle escaped. She was losing it.
He stared at her. “Did I make you uncomfortable?”
“No, no. Not at all. I’m comfortable.” Lie. She totally wanted to die right now. Like, literally. If a pit of eternal fire gaped open in front of her, she’d gladly jump in.
“Riley,” he stopped and turned to her. “Look at me.”
The sun had gone down, and darkness surrounded them as they weren’t quite to the buildings of the resort. She stared at him, his face shrouded in darkness.
“I’ve fallen in love with you.”
His words sent a zing of attraction through her, and she had to admit, pleasure. But she couldn’t feel that way. She swallowed as she tried to think of what to say.
“I just thought I needed to make it clear, in case the song hadn’t done it.”
“I—uh,” she sputtered. Why couldn’t she make actual words come out? Maybe because she didn’t know what to say.
“Look, the last thing I want to do is make you uncomfortable. But I kind of felt like we had a mutual attraction going on. If I’m mistaken, please let me know so I can go back to my room and be appropriately mortified.”
Her heart broke for him, and she shook her head. “You’re not mistaken,” she said, her voice barley coming out.
“Then, let’s go back to my room and talk.”
She knew what that meant. He’d warned her with his song. He was going to tell her he was Jalen. But she didn’t want that. She couldn’t let him reveal himself, only to be devastated by her story. Her betrayal. She wasn’t worthy of his love.
Still, she couldn’t tell him she had no feelings for him. That would break him. And it was a lie. She walked with him back to the resort, through the hallway and to his door, still unsure of what she was going to say when they got inside.
The security guard stood aside as Jalen swiped his keycard and motioned for her to enter. Sir Barks was particularly noisy, jumping on them as if he hadn’t seen them in a year. Nerves jumbled inside her as she stepped in and he closed the door.
“Hey, Sir Barks. Calm down,” Jalen said.
“Maybe he needs a walk.”
