Chapter 12
Chapter 12
Reese
Picking up my drink, I take a sip while listening to the woman seated next to me talk about her husband, who is not here tonight because he has a soccer match in London tomorrow. From what I’ve gathered, he’s world-renowned, yet I have no idea who he is. Not that that means much of anything. There must be over two hundred famous men and women in this room right now, and even though a few of them look familiar, I don’t know any of their names.
Which is sad. I could probably make a killing if I stole a stack of napkins and walked around asking for autographs to sell on eBay.
“I love your dress. Where did you get it?” she asks, and I place my glass of wine on the table. I really should have gotten tequila.
“My aunt got it in Paris twenty years ago.”
“Oh, I love vintage. It’s beautiful.” She leans back from the table to expose more of her dress, and I take that as my cue to return the compliment.
God, I really do suck at this.
“I love your dress, too. That color is really nice. It reminds me of a flamingo.”
“A flamingo?” She frowns.
“The pink bird.”
“I know what a flamingo is.”
“Oh, sorry, I just...”
“Ree,” Brodie cuts in before I can shove my foot farther into my mouth. “Do you want to dance?”
No. “Yes, please.” I let out a relieved breath and then glance at the woman again. I really should have asked for her name. We just finished a whole meal together, sitting side by side. “We’ll be right back. We’re just going for a spin.”
“Sure.” She nods, looking at me like I have two heads. I take Brodie’s hand and let him help me out of my chair. With one look at his handsome face, I know he’s trying not to laugh.
When we get to the dance floor, he pulls my body into his and drops his mouth to my ear.
“Did you just tell Ronaldo’s wife that she looks like a flamingo?”
“No. I said her dress reminded me of a flamingo,” I grumble, and he laughs. “It’s pink. What else was I supposed to say?”
“Nothing.” He smiles down at me, looking amused.
“Do you like this kind of thing?” I look around at the people chatting in groups and others dancing near us. It’s a lot to take in, and I don’t know that I could do this on a regular basis.
“What? Events like this?” I nod. “I don’t know if I like them, but it’s a good way to meet other athletes and build connections. Plus, this is all for a good cause. My family could afford to pay for my gear and shit when I started playing hockey, but that isn’t the case for everyone.” His gaze wanders over my face. “Why do you ask?”
“I’m just not good at this. I’ve never been overly social, so I feel really outside my comfort zone, which I know makes me extra awkward. Hence me telling that nice woman her dress looks like a flamingo.” I watch him smile and melt into him. “Plus, I don’t recognize anyone and feel like I should when I’m in a room full of famous people.”
“Who cares if you don’t know who any of these people are? If you started talking about one of the sea creatures from your science-y books, I doubt any of us in this room would know what you’re talking about.”
“Science-y books?” I grin, but he doesn’t smile back. The look on his face is deathly serious.
“You’re perfect, Ree, and fuck anyone who doesn’t think so.” He dips his face closer to mine. “And I knew it before, but I hope you get that your ex is the world’s biggest fucking idiot. I know it sucks because he hurt you, but I gotta tell you, Ree, I’m half-tempted to send him a thank you gift for fucking up because if he hadn’t, I don’t know that we would have met. And I’m really fucking happy we did.”
“Are you trying to make me cry?”
“Do not start crying. I don’t think I could handle seeing you cry,” he grumbles, and I drop my forehead to the center of his chest, attempting to pull myself together because my nose is actually starting to sting.
“You do know that you’re pretty awesome, too, right?” I say quietly, lifting my gaze back to his. “I’m also really glad that things worked out like they did and that we met.”
His expression softens, and my heart pounds as he presses his mouth to mine for a soft kiss. Shit, I’m falling for him—or I think I am. I have never felt like this about another man, and all of this is so new to me. When he pulls back, he touches my jaw softly and then looks over my head when someone calls his name.
“Fuck.”
“Do I even want to know?”
“It’s just my agent.” He laughs, giving my waist a squeeze.
“Oh, okay. Well, while you go talk to him, I’m going to use the restroom.”
“Come back to me when you’re done.” I nod and step out of his embrace, heading to the restroom while he walks toward a very short man with almost no hair on the top of his head.
After I finish in the bathroom, I step out into the hall and silently curse when I see Kirk standing there, leaning against the wall with his head back and his eyes closed.
I start to sneak past him, hoping he won’t notice me, but my plan is thwarted when he opens his eyes, and they lock on mine.
Great.
“Reese.” He pushes away from the wall and steps in front of me.
“Sorry, I can’t talk. Brodie is waiting for me.”
“Please.” He holds his hands up in front of him. “I just want to talk to you for a minute.”
Since he’s blocking the hall, and I don’t want to cause a scene, I cross my arms over my chest. “Fine. Say what you want to say.”
“I’m sorry. I never planned on anything happening between Melissa and me, but you and I were in an awkward place, and we hadn’t...” He glances behind me and shuts his mouth.
“Had sex,” I finish for him. His gaze comes back to mine. “So, because I hadn’t had sex with you, you decided to sleep with Melissa?”
“It wasn’t that…” He scrubs his fingers through his hair. “Or it was partly that, but…”
“But what?” I swear I want to kick him in the shin. When I agreed to be his girlfriend, nothing between us changed except the intimacy part of our relationship. But even that only went so far. I mean, we were working up to it, but it was all very uncomfortable for me. So, we hadn’t had sex. He thought it was because I was still a virgin, and I convinced myself of the same thing. Now, I realize it was because he was Kirk, my best friend, the guy I grew up with. We knew everything about each other, and I loved him, but I just wasn’t attracted to him like that. I never had the urge to crawl up his body. I never wanted to kiss him or have him kiss me. There was no desire on my end, and that should have been my first clue that I should have broken up with him. Did he feel the same? Probably. Or maybe. Who knew?
“But I shouldn’t have asked you to be my girlfriend.” He takes a step toward me, and I back up into something—or someone. Then a hand wraps around my hip in a familiar way, and I know without looking that it’s Brodie. Great, how long was he standing there? “We were getting ready to graduate, and I was scared that I would lose you. Part of me thought we could make it work.”
“You know all of this could have been avoided if you had just been honest with me. I don’t care that you’re with her, and sure, no guy wants to tell their girlfriend they’re falling for someone else, but before the dynamic of our relationship changed, you and I were best friends. That should have trumped everything else.”
“You’re right.”
“And you should have known me well enough to know that I would have been okay with you dating Melissa if that’s what you wanted, even if I don’t like her very much.”
“I fucked up.”
“You did, but so did I. I shouldn’t have agreed to be with you either. I knew it wouldn't work, but like you, I didn’t want to lose you and thought agreeing to be your girlfriend was the only way to keep you in my life.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Me, too.” My smile is sad because I know that even with this conversation, there is no going back to us being friends.
“Can you forgive me?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean we can go back to being friends like we were.”
“I get that. I don’t like it, but I get it,” he says quietly, then looks at the man behind me, his eyes narrowing the way they used to do when we were kids, and someone was picking on me. “You’d better be good to her.” I sigh and barely avoid rolling my eyes at him when his gaze meets mine once again. “Take care, Reese.”
“You, too.” I watch him walk off. When he’s out of sight, I turn to face Brodie. “How much of that conversation did you hear?”
“I walked out of the bathroom when he said that you and he were in an awkward place.”
So, basically everything. “Great.” I let out a breath. “Well, now you know that I’ve never had sex, so that’s fun.”
He drops his chin and locks his eyes on mine. “You mean you never had sex with him.”
“Umm,” I whisper, caught off guard when he suddenly begins walking me backward. My back hits the wall, and then he cages me in with his big body.
“Are you a virgin, Ree?” he asks on a growl that sends a tingle down my spine.
“Why are you saying it like that?” Also, why is my heart pounding and the space between my legs suddenly pulsing?
“Answer my question.”
“Maybe.” My breath catches as his hand smooths up the side of my waist, coming to rest just below my breast.
“Has anyone ever been inside you?”
“Brodie.”
“Yes? Or no?”
“No.”
“Shit.” He drops his head to my shoulder.
“Shit, what?” I ask, worry beginning to creep up on me. I know there were guys back in college who would refuse to sleep with a girl if she was a virgin because they didn’t want to risk the attachment. Pulling back, Brodie’s eyes meet mine, and then he presses his hips into my belly.
“I’m hard as steel, and there is a room full of people down the hall, Ree.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.”
I lick my lips. “It doesn’t bother you that…?”
“That you’re a virgin?” I nod. “Fuck, no.” His eyes wander over my face for a long moment, and then he takes a step back, not fully out of my space but far enough away that I can no longer feel his erection. I watch him adjust himself and bite my bottom lip. “Don’t look at me like that, Ree. We still have at least another hour here.”
“Okay,” I breathe, and his jaw clenches. I press my palms flat against the wall behind me so I don’t reach for him like I want to. Have I ever felt this desirable, this powerful? No, I don’t think I have. I’ve also never been this turned on, so the next hour will be interesting.