Despite being so far away, I can still make out her eyes widening in horror. “Fine,” she says, more than happy to keep this little midnight meeting from her parents.
Brylee’s curtain is pulled shut before she disappears from view. Her bedroom light is shut off and then nothing. For all I know, she turned the light off and climbed in bed and is laughing at how easily fooled I was.
After a painstakingly long two minutes, the front door opens and Brylee steps out. The sensor lights by her door come to life, shining down on her and I suck in a breath as I take her in looking like a fucking goddess. She’s beautiful.
Brylee is still in the bridesmaid dress she wore to the wedding and the golden silk falls over her body as though it was made for her. Her hair is up with loose curls falling down around her face and those fucking gorgeous blue eyes…shit. They’re like endless hollows drawing me in.
I push up off my car as she makes her way toward me and I have a vision of what our future could hold, only in this vision, the pathway she’s walking down is an aisle and the golden silk is replaced with white.
Fuck. That might be taking my obsession a little too far.
Brylee finally reaches me after what feels like a lifetime when in reality, it was maybe fifteen seconds. Her chin raises as she looks up at me and I find myself reaching out and taking her hips. “What are you doing here?” she murmurs, looking deeply into my eyes.
I lean back against my car, bringing her with me, but she does her best to keep a little distance between us. “I had to see you,” I tell her. “I couldn’t let you go home without talking this through.”
“Talking what through?” Bry questions, though the distance in her eyes tells me that she knows exactly what I’m referring to. “There’s nothing to talk about, Tyson. I’m going home in the morning.”
“You know just as well as I do that there’s something going on here,” I tell her. “I know you feel it.”
She shakes her head, glancing away and refusing to meet my eyes. “I don’t,” she whispers.
I pull her in tighter, feeling her thighs brush against mine. “You’re lying. I see it, Brylee. When you see me walk through a door, your eyes light up. When you touch me, you bite your bottom lip, and when I touch you, your cheeks flush. When you think I’m not around, you search me out and when I’m not there, you fucking miss me.”
She shakes her head. “Tyson, please. Don’t do this.”
“I have to,” I tell her, hoping she sees my desperation to make this work. “I’m done dancing around the topic. You know how I feel about you, you see it just as clearly as I see you.”
“I…” she says with a cringe, cutting herself off.
I take her chin and gently bring her eyes back to mine, wishing I could pull her into me and kiss her. “You know it, Bry,” I tell her softly. “You know that I’ve been in love with you since that very first touch. I know you feel this. You may not be in love with me, but I know there’s something here.”
Brylee’s hands fall to my wrists and she pushes them down so they fall from her hips. “Don’t do this,” she repeats. “I know where you’re going with this and I just…I can’t.”
“Where do you think I’m going?” I question.
Brylee lets out a broken sigh, dropping her eyes once again. “You were right, I do see it. I’ve always known that you love me, which is part of the reason why I’ve kept a distance. I don’t want you to think this is more than what it is. I don’t want to lead you on and have you thinking there’s a future here when there’s not. It was just sex, Ty.”
Her words sting, but I refuse to believe them. She’s in denial. I know she feels it, I can read her like a book. I push off the side of my car and put myself right in front of her, taking her hips once again. “It’s so much more than just sex, Brylee. I know you want this. We can do it. We can make it work.”
“We can’t,” she says as her eyes fill with tears. “Please, Tyson, just leave it alone.”
“I can’t. I can’t have you get back on that plane tomorrow and not know where we stand. You’re my fucking girl, Bry. I want you in my life. These past few months with you being away and not hearing a fucking word from you have almost killed me. I don’t feel like me without you.”
“This is too much,” she says, stepping back out of my reach. “I can’t do this.”