“I take it he didn’t listen.”
I shake my head, turning to stare into the flickering glow of the fire. “No. He was everywhere. All around me. Impacting my classes and my friendships and my life. Any guy I spoke to, he threatened. I think he even beat one of them up. After he graduated that spring, I thought things would improve. They didn’t. I stayed in New York that summer and I had spoken with the police. Finally, I got the restraining order.”
“Fuck,” Brecken rasps, running an agitated hand over his face and through his hair before balling up his fist and slamming it down on his raised knee so hard he nearly spills the wine in his other hand. He shoots off the couch, walking toward the fireplace and back again, pacing two more times before stopping, twisting to stare at me. “Where is he now, Rina?”
“Dead,” I answer calmly, grateful that he didn’t ask what happened after I got the restraining order. “He shot himself in October of that year.”
“October?”
“About two weeks from now.”
He stares at me, his eyes shifting about my face and body like he’s working something out in his head. He likely is. It’s not difficult to draw conclusions about the way I live my life after a story like that. It’s partially why I told him. Why I told my friends after they continuously asked why I never dated anyone.
I wanted him to know that it’s not just Aria that’s standing between us.
The truth is, I like him. But that doesn’t mean I want to get involved with him.
“In any event, after that happened, I decided I was no longer living my life for others. That I was going to do things my way, tradition or not. I had wanted to be a nurse and so that’s what I did. I switched my major and never looked back. Never gave it a second thought. That was the one good thing to come from Harrison. I learned the hard way that life is tenuous and doing things just to make others happy is the wrong way to go about it.”
In the next second Brecken’s back on the couch, his glass on the table, and then he’s closer. Right at the tips of my toes, his hands on my knees, and his eyes on mine. “I’m glad you told me. I know why you did it, though you’re playing that that was the reason you became a nurse. You’re trying to warn me off. And maybe you’re right to do that. I’m only in Boston until I don’t have to be anymore. But Rina, I’d never hurt a hair on your head. Ever. Regardless of what does or does not happen between us, I need you to know that you’re always safe with me.”
“Brecken—”
“I know. You don’t date. I understand and now I think I understand even more.”
“You know it’s more than that. You said so yourself. I’m a billionaire. You have money.” I pan my hand around his apartment. “How do you ever know if a woman is interested in you for you or for your money?”
He grins. “Maybe that’s what makes us perfect for each other.”
“Come on. You know what I mean. It’s an impossible—”
“I fucked up,” he cuts me off, and I’m so jarred by his unexpected words I start.
“What do you mean?”
“You told me something incredibly real that I imagine wasn’t so easy to tell, so I’m going to do the same. You trusted me and I don’t trust anyone, but I’m going to trust you.”
“Okay,” I say slowly, almost in a whisper.
He squeezes my knees. “My being here is a punishment. I was securing an IPO with an up-and-coming tech firm. Everything was as good as gold and set to run. A good buddy of mine from a rival firm must have gotten wind of what I was in on and invited himself over for drinks one night. I was stupid and didn’t think anything of it. I had made the mistake of leaving some documents on my computer, open for anyone to see. A week later, he had the IPO. Not us. Their clients got in on the ground floor of the stock. Alexander, my boss, was furious. I was furious. And humiliated.”
“God.” I reach out and take his hand, holding it in mine. “I’m so sorry. That must have been so awful.”
“It was. I was lucky I didn’t get fired. I was the ace in our firm, so instead I got sent here. Sure, I could have quit. Started somewhere else. But my name was already on the street as having lost this huge IPO, so no one was going to take a chance on me. Now I’m biding my time. Giving it the year to prove myself. To get myself back to New York and be back on top of the game.”
“Is that why you looked so miserable tonight when I saw you in the sub shop? Why it’s been such a long week?”
“Yeah. I mean, that’s part of it. My boss is also a super dick and possibly involved in something shady. Either that or they’re trying to set me up. I can’t tell which.”
“Wow. That’s pretty fucked up. What are you going to do?”
He hitches up a shoulder, twisting his hand and intertwining our fingers. My gaze drops to our joined hands as does his. I feel it. A connection. Touching him feels different, yet I can’t pull away. Telling him didn’t distance us the way I had hoped—he wasn’t wrong with that—it’s brought us closer together.
“I’m going to keep my head down and do my job the way I always have. Only this time I’ll do it better because I learn from my mistakes.”
I meet his steadfast gaze, my heart skipping a beat. “I guess that’s what we’re both doing. Learning from our mistakes.”
“You were a victim. None of that was on you.”
“You could say the same thing about what happened to you,” I retort and watch as his face shutters over with a menacing scowl. I reach out to touch it before I even know what I’m doing. My mind is buzzing from the wine, but I’m not sure I can even blame it on that.
I’ve wanted to touch Brecken again since the moment I saw him.
My fingers glide along his smooth lips, softening the edges before trickling up across his strong, stubbled jaw. His eyes darken and my breath quickens as my blood heats. Just with that look. Just with this simple touch. I’ve never experienced attraction the way I do with him. He’s so gorgeous he’s almost too much to look at. Even when I do, I have to look away or the flutters in my belly become too much to take.
Too much. That’s what Brecken is. All of him.
And it’s luring. So very tempting. Insanely dangerous. How easy would it be to give in to this thing? To press my lips to his and get lost in the pleasure I already know he’s capable of delivering. But then what? He and I have both learned the hard way that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It’s fucking physics. A law of nature.
And you cannot cheat that.
No matter how much you might want to try.
“I should go,” I say.
“You should stay.”
I shake my head, my hand still on his face, touching, tickling, feeling.
“Rina, stay. I want you to stay.”
“That’s why I need to go.”
He thinks about that. It’s words I’ve said to him before. “I don’t care. I don’t care,” he repeats, this time more emphatically.
“But tomorrow you will. We’re not just a random one night anymore, Brecken.”
He growls, his forehead dropping to my knees. My hand finds the strands of his hair as I glide my fingers through it, toying with the soft, silky texture before forcing my hand to fall to my lap.