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Even if I wasn’t so adamant on scanning every location I entered, I would have felt him anyway. I would have smelled him in the air. I would have somehow sensed his presence.
That was the kind of connection I had to him.
I stood midway between the bar and elevators and found myself frozen in this spot.
My feet wanted to walk to him, my hands wanted to place the food before him, my lips wanted to ask him if he wanted to share this meal.
But I couldn’t.
I needed to keep my distance, return to my room, and pretend that I’d never seen him.
So, I urged myself toward the elevators, and just as I was about to take my first step, his eyes connected with mine, immediately halting my plan and the chance of walking away unseen.
To make matters even worse, I couldn’t move. His stare was making my limbs lock in place, causing me to stay right here, vulnerable in more ways than one, while showing him how much his presence affected me.
I could only imagine what that looked like on my face when his light-blue eyes met my deep-blue ones.
A wave fluttered through my entire body. As it reached my chest, it took my breath away, like the plane and car ride, but this was worse. It was tighter. And as the seconds passed, my breath didn’t return.
Only when Brady nodded at the spot next to him did I find myself walking, and it wasn’t toward an escape—the elevators, a stairwell, even the lobby door. I was headed directly for him.
“Brady,” I said as I approached, my brain a mess of thoughts, but there was something I absolutely needed to tell him. “I want to apologize?—”
“I need to say something to you.”
My heart was beating so fast that I placed my hand on top of it. “Okay,” I whispered, cuddling the to-go food against me like it was a blanket.
He pointed at the chair next to his. “Sit.”
I took a few seconds to inventory the room, looking at each of the faces that surrounded the bar, and when I was positive I didn’t recognize any, I took a seat.
“I want to tell you something about myself.” He held up his glass. “If I hadn’t had four of these and a day of meetings that sucked the fucking life out of me, I don’t know that I would be saying any of this to you.”
His shirt was unbuttoned, showing a small hint of the dusting of hair on his chest. The gel he’d added to his locks had worn thin, allowing the strands to fall naturally. He looked like a man who had spent almost half of a day flying and most of the other half in meetings.
And he looked devastatingly sexy.
What I loved most about his appearance and the sound of his voice was that the edge was gone. This was the Brady I’d woken up to in Tampa. The one whose arms had wrapped around me in the middle of the night, as though lying next to me wasn’t close enough. The one who had gazed at me in the morning like I was more beautiful in my half-asleep state than the sun coming in through the blinds.
The man I’d seen hours ago on the plane was his thick, crispy outer edge.
The man sitting next to me was the warm, gooey middle.
“I can’t wait to hear it,” I admitted.
His exhale came fast, through his nose, and when it hit my face, I smelled the scotch on his breath. A scent that, when mixed with his cologne, was more delicious than any of the food I was holding.
“I don’t say I’m sorry. Not ever. I don’t even know what that fucking word means.” He turned in the chair, his body fully facing me. “But what I said to you on the plane was wrong. It was a lie. I didn’t want your number just so I could fuck you.” When he paused, I saw the passion flicker across his stare. “I do want to fuck you—I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is that there was more behind that statement, and I aimed those words at you because I was pissed. I shouldn’t have pulled out a verbal weapon when all you were doing was being honest with me. You didn’t deserve it, and for that, I’m sorry.”
My fingers were on his arm. I couldn’t recall when I’d put them there, but I was now squeezing him. It took everything in me to leave them there even though every warning sign was telling me to pull them back. “I owe you an apology too. I wanted to give you one on the plane. I just didn’t have the chance.”
“Because I took that chance away from you.”
I nodded. “You were only focusing on half of what I’d said.” I moved to the end of the chair as though the inch would allow me to lower my voice even more. “I wasn’t telling you I don’t want you. I was telling you I can’t have you.”
The corner of his lips lifted. “I don’t like that response either.”
“But it’s better.” I offered a small smile.
