Page 51 of Crushing On My Brothers BFF

She smiles, looking so hot in her dress, just a little cleavage on show, enough to get my mind stirring. Since the car ride, it’s like we’ve agreed not to mention her brother. Tomorrow can wait. The PR shitstorm can wait. Everything can, except for each other.

“I wish I could…” She suddenly goes quiet, picks up a French fry, and bites the end.

“Please feel free to finish that sentence,” I say, just like she did in the car.

She frowns, the sun making her cheeks glow. Somehow, even a frown from her is bright and beautiful. “You won’t like it. It’s about the crush. That’s why I stopped myself.”

“Maybe I have to get used to it. Tell me.”

“I wish I could tell my old self that I’m here. She wouldn’t believe it. She’d be so happy.”

“But you don’t have the crush anymore,” I say.

“It’s not acrush. It’sattraction. I don’t know why it creeps you out so much.”

“I’ve already told you,” I sigh. “It makes me feel like I’m taking advantage of you.”

“It’s not taking advantage if Iwantit,” she says passionately, all sass, all fire. “You either think I’m mature enough to make my own decisions, or you think I’m that same dorky girl from the video. It can’t be both.”

“I want you here, now. I don’t care about before.”

“Why do you want me?”

I smirk, cutting into my steak.

“And what’sthatsmile about?”

“It sounds like a trick question.”

“I think it’s a fair question. I mean, it was fast. I’ve had years to think about our first kiss. Like it or not, it’s the truth.” She gestures with her hand as if to cut off anything I might say, a confident grin on her face. “But with you…”

“I don’t know.” I bite down on a chunk of bloody steak, looking at the city.

“So romantic,” she teases.

I smile over at her. “It’s you, Sophie. I can’t explain it. I just know I want you. All these years, not dating…”

“Wait, wait,” she says. “Don’t skip pastthat. How many years without dating?”

I shrug. “Five, six, seven, something like that. I was never much of a dater before, anyway. Work’s been so busy, and honestly, nobody has interested me. Nobody ever has. I’ve dated but never felt like this, how I do with you. With you, I didn’t have to think. I just know. It’s like the color of grass. It’s like breathing air. It justis.”

She blinks, her eyes glistening. “Okay, thatwasromantic.”

“It’s the truth,” I tell her, shrugging. “That’s what makes this so messed up. This feeling could only be about you, nobody else.”

“If you’re a player, that’s one hell of a line.”

I grab her hand and hold it tightly. Briefly, an image thumps right into my chest hard—my woman, a ring on her finger, glistening just like her eyes are right now. “I mean it,” I growl. “I don’t want anybody else.”

She leans down, kisses my hand, and looks at me with emotion. “I feel the same. I promise.”

We go on eating. It’s like the final supper, the last chance we have to date, to be together, before we tell Paul the truth and explode his world.

“What does Tyrone think about my stunt?” she asks after a minute or so.

I spoke to Tyrone before arranging the date out here. “He thinks it could go our way. We make a good team, apparently. Ithought it might hurt me since I was basically on tape caving to blackmail.”

She must be able to tell how hard I’m being on myself. She touches my hand. Her look of support is more invigorating than any drug could ever be. “You only did that for me. For us. For Paul.”

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