Page 106 of Someone to Have
“I fucking did it!” he shouts, releasing one of my hands to fist-pump the air. “Excuse my colorful language. I’m guessing a meek and mild librarian doesn’t?—”
I pull my other hand from his grasp. Meek and mild? Seriously? “Bryan, I grew up around hockey players. I’m well-versed in swearing.”
He chuckles, then moves closer, crowding me a little. I take an automatic step away.
He makes a show of looking around the cramped prop room. “You’re alone.”
No shit, Sherlock. “I wanted a minute to savor the moment, but we should go be with the rest of the cast. I’m sure other people want to congratulate you.”
“You don’t need to play coy.” He gives me a slow once over. “I know why you’re in here.”
My spine stiffens. Did he overhear that humiliating conversation with my family?
“Normally, I make it a priority not to get involved with my underlings.”
“Wow. Interesting word choice.”
“You know what I mean,” he adds.
I nod. “I think it’s a smart policy.”
“Taylor.”
“Bryan.”
He offers a sheepish grin. “Right now, I’m just a boy, standing in front of a girl, asking her to?—”
“Did you just use aNotting Hillline on me?”
“I came up with that.”
“Are you sure?”
“The important part is I see you now, Taylor. I see you with me.”
His words fall flat, but how he says them gives me pause. I might have had a giant crush on him, but in all that time pining, the truth is I never really saw us together.
Or if I did, like imagining us reading on the couch, it was the two of us near each other, but not together. I could picture him next to me, but not in my heart. Not the way Eric is, despite my best efforts to keep him out.
“About that, Bryan?—”
“I know,” he says, and suddenly he’s kissing me.
Not a soft, slow, waiting-for-me-to-invite-him-in-deeper kiss, but a full Mac Daddy, tongue-sweeping-into-my-mouth, camera-pans-around-us kind of kiss.
I’m not into it. At all.
I twist away, but before I can tell Bryan this is a mistake and I don’t want it anymore, I see Eric looming in the doorway. His dark eyes hold a mix of confusion, disbelief, and anger.
Bryan reaches for me again, but Eric disappears.
Without a word. Like he was never there in the first place.
Without knowing this isn’t what I want.
“Bryan, this isn’t what I want.” I need both of us to get the message loud and clear.
He gives me that golden retriever head tilt again. “Of course it is. You think I didn’t see your infatuation with me? You’ve wanted this for months. Don’t play hard to get now.”
