Drying out the rest of the floor, I get back up and toss the paper towel in the bin. I turn around and find Chase pouring water back on the floor. “It’ll get sticky,” he explains, answering the question I was about to ask.
I grab more paper towels and bend down to clean up the new mess. “You should really let me help,” he adds and again he finds himself on the floor with me.
“Didn’t I say you’ve done enough? Just go back downstairs and hang out with your buddies.”
“Did I do something to piss you off?” he asks.
The nerve of him. “Nope. Not at all,” I reply and fix my eyes on the floor.
His hands caress my cheeks briefly. “I like you, especially when you get this look in your eyes,” he says. I stop moving. Stop drying the floor and bring my eyes back to his.
“What’d you just say?” I ask, because clearly, I heard him wrong.
“You know what I said. I’m attracted to you.”
I roll my eyes. “You like me… is what you said, but I’m not sure what that means to you, really. Do you make it a habit to pretend the people you ‘like’ or are ‘attracted to’ don’t exist?” I ask, still angry.
“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” he replies. We’re both still on the floor, me on my knees and him crouched down.
“How so?” I ask, not backing down.
He looked behind me at the door to the basement. “Your brothers.”
“What about them?”
“They’re my teammates.”
“And?”
“They’ve treated me like family,” he adds. It’s only been a month and they’ve welcomed him in like they’ve known him forever. They don’t really do that. I don’t know why they did it in this case.
“Okay, your point being?”
“I don’t want to mess that up by dating their little sister,” he replies and the anger that had dissipated returns with more force this time.
I say the one thing that I can at this moment. “Well, I don’t know what makes you think their little sister,” I make sure I emphasize those words, “would ever date you. I don’t even know you,” I reply. Dropping the paper towel on the floor, I rise from the floor.
“So then, it won’t be an issue,” he replies, getting up too. He blocks the exit so I can’t run away from here.
“I guess it won’t be. We can go back to ignoring each other,” I reply, my fingers digging into his chest.
“You’re not attracted to me at all?” he asks, holding my fingers in his hand while he pulls me closer to him.
“Nope,” I reply, but my heart says the opposite.
He smiles and this time the smile just pisses me off even more. “Not even a little bit?”
I shake my head because if I speak, he’ll know I’m lying.
“Are you sure?” he asks, his lips just a breath away from mine.
Instead of answering him, I do the one thing I shouldn’t. The one thing that would forever result in us never being able to go back to pretending the other didn’t exist.
I kiss him.
About Gianna
Gianna Gabriela is originally from Rhode Island. She’s a small-town girl living in the Big Ol’ City of New York. She considers herself a writer of gorgeous alpha-males and strong heroines. She’s been reading for years and calls it her addiction. Her favorite genre is anything in the YA/NA Romance Realm.