Page 9 of The Baseball Player's Obsession

My eyes widen when I realize I'm looking at a video feed of my house, and the notification on it was showing where the bug guy showed up to spray. I left a key out so he could get in since I knew I wouldn't be there tonight since I’m staying over with Nate.

My heart starts hammering away in my chest when the gravity of what I'm seeing settles over me.

Nate has cameras in my apartment. How did he get cameras in my apartment?Whydoes he have cameras in my apartment? How long has he had cameras in my apartment?

All I can do is stare at the screen, dumbfounded as I imagine all the things Nate has seen me do.

When he walks out of the bathroom, he goes completely still as he sees me holding his phone in my hand.

“Nate,” my voice comes out shaky as I hold up the phone and show him the screen. “What is this?”

One look into his eyes is like a stab straight to my heart.

The guilt is written all over his face. Betrayal twists my gut. I leap up from the bed. I don't know what I'm thinking. I'm just following some instinct that tells me to run, but Nate circles around the bed quick as a flash and grabs me from behind, pulling my back flush against his chest.

“It’s not what you think, Brandy. Well, then what the fuck is it, Nate, because it looks like you've been spying on me.”

Nate’s arms band tighter around me before he turns me to face him and holds me still with his hands on my shoulders.

I struggle in his grasp, but he refuses to release me. “I'm not some crazy stalker, Brandy. I know what it might look like, but I swear I'm not. It's just that from the moment I first set eyes on you I couldn't tear myself away from you. I became obsessed with you, and it's something I swore I would never do. You know I didn't want to end up like my father.”

I soften. I remember Nate telling me about how his dad completely lost it when his mom died. That's why Nate always held himself back from love.

But he's never held himself back from me.

“One look at you, Brandy,” he goes on, “and I just couldn't do it. I couldn't pretend that I wasn't completely in love with you. Yeah, I know. It might be the cheesy shit that rom-coms are made of, but it was love at first sight. When I saw you, I just knew you were meant to be mine, but I was too scared to approach you. I was too afraid of how deep my obsession with you already was, but it was killing me to not be able to see you every moment of the day.

“So, I did the only thing I could do, and I might be wrong, Brandy, but I'm not sorry. I'm not going to lie to you. I’d do it all over again. You know I love you. You know that's real. And if you think there's any way in hell I’ll let you walk out the door, you're the one who's crazy, baby, because I don't give a fuck if I have to kidnap you and chain you to me at this point. You're not going anywhere, princess.”

His eyes are wild, and his chest is heaving at the end of his monologue.

I stare at him in shock as I try to process everything he's just told me. I don't even know how to feel about it.

I know what I should be feeling, and that’s fear. So then why do I feel a little flutter of pleasure in my belly?

It’s because I’m sick. I'm sick too because deep down a part of melikesthat he's so obsessed with me like this.

That he would go to such extreme lengths to have me. I don't know what my expression is telling him, but it's something that causes panic to flash over his face.

“Brandy,” his voice breaks. “It would completely wreck me to lose you.”

He falls down on his knees and wraps his arms around my hips, pressing the side of his face against my stomach.

His shoulders shake, and I realize he's crying. Something about seeing this big, capable man on his knees sobbing before me has me sliding to my knees too.

Tears stream down my own cheeks as I take his face in my hands and find his golden gaze that I love so much.

“I felt it too,” I tell him. A feeling of serenity passes over me. It doesn’t matter. That first day we met, I felt that electric spark too.

Nate's eyes are so vulnerable as he gathers me close to him and buries his face in my neck.

“I’m yours, Nate,” I tell him as I cradle his head against me and run my fingers through his hair soothingly.

He begins to kiss all over the side of my neck, moving his kisses up until he's kissing all over my cheeks, my forehead, and then finally my lips.

“Brandy, my precious angel, I’d do anything for you. Anything but let you go. You understand that, don't you?”

I look into his golden eyes and nod, my heart swelling. Yes, I do understand, but I can’t form the words. Instead, I kiss Nate, communicating to him everything I feel, sealing my promise with a kiss.

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