I hate this reaction. I hate that Austin is probably thinking there’s something seriously wrong with me. Kalvin is holding his head as if he can see the thoughts developing in everyone’s heads. “I know it’s a surprise to you, but it’s not a big deal, okay?” I tell Brendan.
“Itisa big deal. Scarlett has never loved anyone. Like love, love, I mean. She’s never been with a man longer than a week or two. If she loves you … holy crap … this is huge! Plus, you followed her out here, and she clearly still loves you. Wow.”
I take Austin’s arm and lead him up the stairs without saying another word on the matter. Brendan can be dramatic but that was over the top.
The door to my room isn’t even closed when I hear the two of them going back at it downstairs. My God.
“I hate that you just had to hear all of that,” I tell Austin.
He takes his hand from mine and places it on my soaking wet back, turning me to face him. “You don’t have to be upset or worried about anything,” he tells me. “You don’t even owe me an explanation.”
“There’s not much to explain,” I tell him. “How many times have you been in love with someone?” He’s a piece of perfection—sweet, caring, and obviously goes to the end of the earth for someone.
“Never,” he says.
“Yeah right,” I reply, cocking my head to the side with disbelief.
“I didn’tjudgeyou,” he says.
“I just find it hard to believe.”
“Have you looked in the mirror? Do you know how many men I have had to watch checking you out over the past month? How can you not think I’m surprised that you’ve never had a relationship progress to the point where you loved someone? You have your shit and I have mine, Scarlett. Let’s leave it in the past like we talked about.”
“Right,” I agree. “Deal.”
“You aren’t secretly hating me for coming out here, though, are you?”
I run my hand up and down his wet sleeve. “I never thought I’d want to see someone again so soon after last seeing them. You were all I thought about the entire time I was in my interview. No one has ever consumed my thoughts like that. I honestly don’t know how to process my feelings. However, when I saw you waiting for me outside, I think everything inside of me melted. My heart did those little flips and there were butterflies, and all that.”
“You seemed hesitant,” he says.
“I was scared I was dreaming it up.”
His hands cup around my cheeks and he tilts my head back to look up at him. “This is real.” His hands are large and cover so much of my face that I feel cradled by his warmth as he leans down to kiss me … slowly, softly, and with emotions I can’t decipher, but I feel them throughout every nerve-ending on my lips.
He stops kissing me but rests his nose against the side of mine. “I’ve never fallen so hard for someone so fast, or at all for that matter.” It feels like there is more within his words and I have a feeling it’s about the deciding factor of what’s next.
“Tell me what you want to hear,” I say.
“You have made my mind so delirious, I’m confused by my own feelings, so I don’t know the answer to that.”
“Oh, where is your luggage?” I don’t know why the thought hadn’t crossed my mind before now but was this a setup or … what? He has nothing with him.
“At the hotel I checked into, I got an early check-in. You don’t really think I was flying in a suit, darlin’, do you?”
“Which hotel?” I ask him.
“The one you were interviewing with. Is that okay?”
Oh shit. My breath catches in my throat. “No, no, it’s not okay. You have to go get it. I can’t go in there with you.”
“What?” He asks, tugging at the shirt that’s still stuck to him. “What’s going on?” He’s laughing because he has no clue why I don’t want him in that hotel.
“I can’t go in there with you.”
“Is it against the policy?”
“Not exactly.”
