Two steps more.
A hand clamped over her forearm and spun her around. “I said wait, goddammit.”
“No, Reid,” she said, her voice losing its calm edge. “Let me go. I want to go home.”
“Look, just let me explain.”
She snorted and glanced back toward the house. Jace and Barbie had gone inside and shut the door. “I think I can figure it out. I don’t need a diagram. Thanks.”
“No, it’s not like that.” But the guilty shift of his eyes said otherwise.
She sighed. “Reid, it’s fine, okay? It’s none of my business. But I think it’s a good idea if we just end whatever has been going on with us right now.”Author: Roni Loren
“Brynn—”
“No, seriously. It’s not like I was expecting exclusivity or whatever, but I think I’ll have a hard time scraping the image of the three of you from my brain.” A flash of the beautiful girl wrapped around Reid’s naked body went through her mind, making her want to heave.
He latched his other hand on her opposite arm, squaring her to face him, his blue eyes fierce. “But I don’t want her, I want you.”
She jerked her arms from his grip, no longer able to keep the lid on her boiling anger. “Oh, right. Because cancelling a date with me to go tag-team fuck some other girl is exactly the way to show me you care. You should write goddamned Hallmark cards.”
He ran a hand over his face, his expression stricken. “No, it’s just… complicated.”
She smirked. “No, I think it’s pretty simple. Now you know why I didn’t want you to come inside my house. My life is ugly. I wouldn’t want to get involved with me either. Good-bye, Reid.”
She turned her back to him and stuck her key in her car door.
“Screw it. You want to talk about secrets?” he asked, his volume rising. “Let’s do that, then.”
She turned the lock and reached for the door handle.
“You know why that girl is here? Because I’m screwed up, Brynn. When I look at you, I don’t just want to play nice and date you. I don’t just want to fuck you. I want to own you. Tie you to my bed and do whatever the hell I want to you. Use you.”
Every muscle in her body stilled and some foreign emotion stirred low and deep in her belly. She couldn’t turn around; she just stared back at her own wide-eyed reflection in her car window.
“And it scares the hell out of me because I can’t keep that desire in control when I’m with you. I don’t trust myself not to hurt you, to take it too far.”
The sad current of his words made her chest ache. She swallowed past the dryness in her throat, hoping her voice would still function. “I don’t understand. Why that girl?”
He sighed, and she could picture his chest heaving with the weight of what he had revealed. “I asked Jace to help me find a way to get rid of this insane need so that I could be with you. Have a normal relationship. That’s what tonight was about. Brynn, I’m so sorry. I just—I didn’t know what else to do.”
She should get in her car and go. Not look back. Her mother had always told her that when people told you who they were, you should believe them. If Reid thought he was dangerous, maybe he was. But the anguish in his voice tugged at her. This man wasn’t violent—every ounce of her God-given instincts told her that.
She took a deep breath, turned around, and met his stormy eyes. “What if I tried to help you?”
“What?” The shame on his face turned to confusion. “What do you mean?”
“You said tonight was about getting this out of your system. Maybe you’re right, maybe that will help,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. “But you don’t need that girl. You could try with me.”
Something unreadable lit his features, but then he grimaced. “No way. You have no idea the things that go through my head, the stuff I want to do—”
“So show me,” she said, cutting him off, her courage rising. “I know you think you’re scaring me off, but the only thing that’s going to do that is you lying to me. So you have some stuff to work through. I have a lot of baggage, too. Maybe we can do this, get you past it, and then move on and date like normal.”
He shook his head. “We can date like normal without doing this. If you’re still willing to give me a chance, I can leave this behind. I think you knowing about it will help me control the urge better.”
She gave him a half-smile. “That’s not how it works. My mother makes her money fulfilling the fantasies guys keep from their partners. If we’re going to date, I don’t want to be wondering if you’re secretly sneaking off to feed that part of you.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you. I swear I won’t lie to you again.” He said the words fervently, like he truly believed them. But she knew him wanting the statement to be true wouldn’t actually make it so.