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Once more a silence descended on the office, and he slowly smiled. For the first time in days—hell, in three years, hope swelled inside him. Hope that maybe, just fucking maybe, this...this thing inside him that craved her wasn’t exactly one-sided.
“I asked you to come with us,” he softly reminded her, a part of him afraid she would run even now. Not physically, but emotionally. Shut him out.
Brooklyn barked out a dry laugh. “Right. Because I’ve always enjoyed being the third wheel. It’s one of my favorite pastimes,” she drawled.
“You wouldn’t have been the third wheel,” he said. And when she snorted, flicking a dismissive hand at him, he planted his palms on her ruthlessly organized desk and leaned forward so she had no choice but to meet his gaze. Lowering his voice, he reiterated, “Understand what I’m saying, Brooklyn.Youwouldn’t have been the third, unwanted party there.”
She stared at him, her chest rapidly rising and falling. The shadows in her eyes deepened, and he immediately knew the moment she’d drawn away from him. Saw the instant her gaze became shuttered again. And he could’ve roared in defeat, in frustration.
No. Hell no.
For years, he’d backed down. Choosing not to rock the boat. Opting to have a friendship with her rather than no relationship at all if he ever confessed his true feelings for her. Not anymore. For once, he was ready to burn it all to the ground for honesty. To be free from this secret.
To risk it all.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she whispered. “That doesn’t make sense. Kayla’s your—”
He sliced a hand through the space between them.
“Kayla hasn’t been my anything for a long time,” he growled. “You were there. You remember when she broke up with me and ended our relationship. So don’t use that to avoid understanding and accepting what I’m telling you.”
“You just said it,” she said, a glint sparking in her eyes as she jabbed a finger in his direction. “Shebroke up withyou. And yes, I was there. I also remember how hurt you were when it happened. Those feelings don’t just go away. And you weren’t exactly fighting her off at the lighting.”
He huffed out a low chuckle, true surprise sweeping through him.
“You saw what you wanted to see. What was comfortable and safe for you to see.” He straightened, pinning her with an unflinching stare. She tried to glance away from him again, but he wasn’t having it. “Look at me, Brooklyn,” he quietly demanded, and a shot of pure lust hit him when she obeyed. “Do you know why Kayla and I broke up?”
“Because she left Rose Bend and you didn’t want to follow her,” she murmured.
“Yes, that’s what I allowed her to believe because it was kinder. True, she wanted to leave Rose Bend, and I had no intentions of moving. But in the end, I was more guilty for the end of us than she was.”
Brooklyn frowned, her chin jerking back at his cryptic statement. Cryptic to her anyway.
“What are you talking about? What could you possibly have to feel guilty about?”
“If I truly loved Kayla—like she needed and deserved to be loved—nothing would’ve kept me from being by her side. For the woman I truly, desperately loved, I would follow her across the state, across the country. Hell, across the globe. Job, love for my hometown, be damned. Nothing could keep me from being by her side.” He took in her thick curls gathered in a bun on top of her head. The pretty brown eyes wide behind her glasses. The thrust of her firm breasts and the sensual flare of her rounded hips under her purple sweater dress. Desire crackled over his skin, sizzled in his veins, hardening his cock to painful fullness. And his heart... His heart pounded, the beat throbbing in his temples, echoing in his head. Fear, and yes, excitement, hummed inside him, but they were here now. There was no going back. And he didn’t want to even if he could.
“Ask me who I would go to the ends of this earth for. Ask me who I would chase down just to be close to her, just breathe her in. Ask me who that person is, Brooklyn.”
She swallowed, and he caught the shiver that slightly shook her petite frame. Her eyes closed for a long moment before those thick, dark lashes lifted and she looked at him again. Indecision, and maybe hints of trepidation, flickered across her face. His gut hollowed out.
Fuck.
Maybe he’d pushed too far. Maybe he was so consumed with what he was feeling, what he wanted from her—had wanted for three years now—that he was infringing on her rights, her comfort. No, that wasn’t what he—
“Who are they?” Brooklyn’s soft question dropped between them like a bomb set on detonation.
And his answer would be the explosion, leaving them forever altered. Either leaving them in pieces, resembling nothing like who they were...or leaving them different but stronger, closer, better.
Again, he flattened his hands on the desk and leaned forward until their faces were only inches apart.
“You. You’re the one I’d say fuck it all and follow. You’re the one I’d burn my world down for. You’rethe one, Brooklyn.”
Slowly, she shook her head, and stumbled back a step.
Away from him.
Pain splintered in his stomach, his chest, embedding in his skin, his fucking soul.
