He touches the brushed brass doorknob, ready to turn it.
I bite my lip, nearly drawing blood. “No.”
His sapphire eyes are on fire, and they’re shooting flaming darts at me. “Excuse me?”
I clear my throat. “No. I can’t do this. We barely know each other.”
He stares at me, but his eyes seem different somehow, like he’s looking not at me but through me. Unease sweeps over my flesh. I’m still turned on, still hotter than ever, but now something icy exists between us, and though we’re only inches away from each other, the distance seems like miles.
I expect him to argue with me. To tell me I’ve already agreed. To pressure me to change my mind.
He says nothing. Instead, he takes my hand and leads me back to the living area. Sasha prances around us, and Braden leans down to give her a pet on the head.
“I’m sor—”
“Not a problem, Skye,” he says, tapping into his phone.
Not a problem? After he said he had to have me? Loved my sexy mouth? My tight body?
This was truly just a fuck to him?
Of course it was. Braden Black can have anyone he wants. He’ll have someone up here to replace me at a moment’s notice. He’s probably calling one of his standbys. Maybe a tall blond supermodel type with legs a mile long. She’ll take my place tonight because I gave up the chance for the night of a lifetime—all for control.
And control is something I can’t ever afford to give up.
I’m a fool.
I changed my mind.
The words hover on my lips. I open my mouth—
Braden clears his throat into the phone. “Christopher? Ms. Manning needs a ride home.”
Chapter Six
“I can’t believe you.” My best friend, Tessa Logan, echoes my own thoughts at breakfast the next morning. “You’ll never get this chance again. Plus, he might have been the one who could help you with your little problem.”
I roll my eyes. I don’t want to think about my “little problem” at the moment. I try to never think about it. It’s not a huge deal, anyway. Why should I miss what I’ve never had?
“I’m not that easy,” I say.
“So what? This is Braden Black, hottie extraordinaire. Not to mention billionaire. When Braden Black wants you, you do it.”
“I just felt so—”
“Out of your element?” she finishes for me, tilting her head so her brown-black hair grazes her shoulders.
Tessa knows me better than anyone and is the only person outside of family who understands why I have a need to be in charge all the time.
“Well…yeah.”
“Skye, let me tell you something. I get your history, but you need to let go, babe. You’re missing out on adventures because of your ridiculous need to be in control. I’ve never even seen you drunk.”
Yeah. And no one ever would. I got over that when I was sixteen. I shared a bottle of Southern Comfort with a high school friend and puked all the next day. Never again. I allow myself two drinks if I’m driving—only one if I’m not eating—and no more than four if I’m not. If I get tipsy with the third, I don’t take it to four. I know my limits, and I stick to them.
“Sorry, Tess. You’ll never get me drunk. Tipsy, but not drunk, and don’t even bring up drugs.”
“Who said anything about drugs?” She shakes her head. “You know I don’t indulge. You don’t want to get drunk? Fine. You can let your hair down in other ways. Let’s get you laid.”
Classic Tessa. Sex is just sex to her. She can separate the act from the emotion. She’s lucky that way.
“I don’t go to bed with just anyone. I think I proved that last night.”
She shakes her head again. “That’s my point. Get laid. Have a one nighter. Yeah, you missed out on what was probably the one nighter of a lifetime, but Braden Black isn’t the only guy in the city.”
He’s the only guy I want.
I don’t say the words out loud, but they’re cemented in my mind. I blew it. I totally blew it.
In truth, I’ve never wanted a man the way I wanted Braden Black last night. My body responded to his every word, move, touch, in a way it never had before. I thought I could handle Braden Black.
But I couldn’t. Not when he kissed me, touched me, led me to his bedroom.
I was ready to let him take me in every way possible, do anything he wanted to me. I didn’t care.
And that frightened me more than anything ever had.
“As much as I’d love to search the streets for someone to take me to bed”—not—“I have to get to work. We’re shooting a selfie at that new pretzel stand this morning.”
“You’re not getting away this easily,” she says. “Tonight. We’re going out.”
“I don’t go out—”
“On work nights. Yeah, I know. God, Skye. Sometimes I wonder why I hang out with you at all.” Tessa rolls her brown eyes and smiles.