Page 50 of Dare to Fall

He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. Trails of goosebumps ran down my neck as I lifted my head and turned to look up at him. Even as we were sitting, he still towered over me, his broad chest a shield from anyone walking by.

It was difficult to see the color of his eyes in the darkness, but the planes of his face softened as he said, “I’m exactly where I should be. You need to stop worrying about everyone else, Eva. At some point, you need to start thinking about yourself.”

“I don’t know how to do that.” I sniffed.

“What has you so upset tonight?”

As I turned my head away from him, I could feel my throat tightening again.

“Whatever it is, Eva, you can talk to me about it. I’m here to listen. Iwantto listen.”

His palm caressed the side of my face as I shifted my gaze toward him.

“Connor, my boyfriend, is cheating on me.” More tears came as quickly as the words rushed out of me. In the little light the moon reflected upon us, I saw Garth’s face harden. The edges of his jaw settled into a hard, unmoving line. But he remained silent, giving me the space to say what I needed to say.

I took in a shaky breath. “I guess it makes sense, looking back. He’s been acting strange ever since he got this new research position. We had always spent the summers together on the beach, but this past summer, he didn’t come home. Not once. Every time I called him to ask if he’d come home, he said he was too busy and he didn’t want to miss out on the amazing opportunity he had.” A morbid chuckle escaped my lips. “And when I made it back to campus for the fall semester, he still didn’t seem to have the time to be with me.”

I tilted my head toward Garth and said, “You know we haven’t had sex in over five months. That should have been my first clue. I mean, what twenty-one-year-old guy doesn’t want to have sex with his girlfriend?” Maybe I was revealing too much. But everything I’d kept buried inside was starting to boil over. Like a loose cannon, everything shot out of me with little to hold it all back. “But I continued to ignore the signs and chalked it up to him being stressed about medical school applications. Turns out, I’m a complete idiot who didn’t see that her boyfriend offive yearswas cheating on her with his professor.”

Garth’s eyebrows shot upward. “Your boyfriend is sleeping with a professor?”

“Yup. I saw them with my own eyes. Earlier today, I went to his biostatistics lab to apologize for everything and try to find a way to make our relationship work. Just as I was about to open the door, I saw him kissing another woman through the glass window. When they pulled away, I saw that it was the new biostatistics professor—the oneeveryonehas been talking about. Another reason why I’m a complete and total fool. The entire student body probably knew about their affair while I was ignorantly thinking he was just stressed and overworked.”

I fidgeted with the clasp on my clutch, overwhelmed with all I had just revealed to Garth. “I’m sorry I just unloaded all of that on you. It’s a lot, and I hardly know you.”

“Eva, you don’t have to apologize to me.” His husky voice sent a pool of warmth to my core. I crossed my legs and squeezed my thighs together.

“Why are you spending your time out here listening to all my problems? You have an entire building full of people who would love to talk with you about art. Instead, you’re listening to me complain about my fucked-up relationship.”

He leaned closer, enveloping me with the scent of sandalwood. A strong wave of desire washed over me, dulling any sense of reason. I couldn’t think clearly when he was this close to me. Hell, I could hardly breathe. My body raged for his touch. And like a moth drawn to a flame, Garth gave me exactly what I wanted as one arm wrapped around my waist and his other hand curled around the nape of my neck. His fingers moved in slow, tantalizing motions, sending butterflies swirling in my stomach. He tilted his forehead down to meet mine. His lips were so close I could smell the lingering scent of sweet peppermint on his breath.

“Because it hurts to stay away from you. I’ve never felt so drawn to a woman in my entire life. From the moment I saw you, there was something that drew me to you. It doesn’t matter to me in what way I get to spend time with you. It only matters that I do.”

Every word he said stitched the small, shattered pieces of my heart together again. It was exactly what I wanted to hear. That the same man who drove me mad with longing felt just as captivated by me as I was by him. As I edged to close the final gap between us, a small voice in my mind told me to stop. Garth was a good man. A man who deserved to have a woman who wasn’t still broken over someone else. Just a few seconds ago, I was crying to him about my boyfriend—orex-boyfriend, whatever the hell Connor was. I honestly wasn’t sure at this point.

It had only been a few hours since I almost walked in on Connor kissing that professor. Not enough time had passed for me to fully wrap my head around what had happened or how I really felt about it all. I knew there was no way in hell I would be able to go back to Connor. Not after what he’d done. But I still needed to talk to him. To let him know that I knew what he did so I could make a clean break and move on with my life.

So, I fought the urge to let Garth be the one to mend my broken heart. Because he deserved better. So much better. And honestly, so did I.

I leaned back, breaking the connection between us despite how painful it was to do so. “Garth, I want so badly to get lost in you right now. I want you to take away every bad feeling I’ve had today. And I know you can do it, because when I’m around you, it’s like I forget all sense of reality. The only thing I want to do is feel the touch of your skin against mine. To feel the butterflies swirl through my stomach when you look at me with those hazel eyes.”

His breathing grew rapid as I brushed my fingertips along the edge of his brow. “But my head isn’t clear, and my heart is broken. There isn’t a single part of me that is in the state I need it to be to move forward with someone new. I have to sort through this mess and come out the other side. You deserve that.Wedeserve that.”

“Does that mean you don’t want me around you anymore?”

My heart broke a little more at the crack in his voice and the sorrow in his eyes. “No, that’s not what I meant at all. Like you, Garth, I find it incredibly difficult to stay away from you. I think it just means that whatever it is that’s growing between us, I need it to move at a slow pace. For now, at least.”

His pearly white teeth shined in the moonlight as he smiled so wide my shattered heart almost exploded into dust.

“I think I can handle that,” he said, placing a gentle kiss to my forehead. My toes curled in my heels as tingling sensations gathered at the apex of my thighs.

Garth Walker was trouble, and I was wavering on the edge of the cliff, ready to fall for him in a moment’s notice. Yet, I was still tethered to the ground, unable to take the final leap.

“I want to take you somewhere. Would you come with me?” he asked.

I tilted my head at him. “You can’t just leave the showcase. You’re the guest of honor, Garth.”

“That’s exactly why Icanleave. Come on, let’s say goodbye to your friend.”

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