off of him. He’s not yelling anymore, but his tone is still harsh.
“No, but we can’t keep running. He’s going to catch up to us sooner or later.”
He hits the table behind me, scaring me. I lean back as he takes a step closer to me. I can see the anger in his gorgeous green eyes melt away to something else. No one has ever looked at me like that. Looking down at me, his voice lowers and is laced with concern. “I can’t watch him take you again, Ry. I just can’t.” His voice is barely louder than a whisper. I know he is pleading with me, begging me to understand, but I’ve accepted that the war is going to come after me. No matter how fast I run away, it will always find me.
He is standing so close to me that I can smell his cologne. He has me caged between his body and the table behind me and his breath is hitting my face. I draw my gaze from his eyes down to his mouth. I know that this really isn’t the time for that, but I can’t help it. I realize now how important this guy is to me. Why did I refuse him twice before? He truly cares about me; otherwise, he wouldn’t be so angry. I lift my eyes back up to his and see him watching me. It feels like time stops. I don’t think about anything else, but how close he is standing to me. His body heat is radiating off of him and hitting me. I try to control my breathing, while the butterflies in my stomach flutter out of control. I want him to lean down and kiss me.
Someone behind me sneezes, bringing my attention back to my surroundings, but I don’t remove my eyes from Colton. He looks over my head at the room around us and slowly exhales. He leans closer to me as he uses his arms to push away from the table. Stepping away, he runs his hand through his hair. Without looking back at me, he shakes his head and walks out of the room. I follow him with my eyes, until he is out of sight.
“He’ll come around,” Claire comes over to me and gives me a hug.
Emma runs over and pulls me away from Claire and out of the room. “Oh. My. Gosh. I know that look on your face!” I start blushing and try looking everywhere but at her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I mumble, hoping that she will drop the conversation, and start walking away.
Running after me, she says, “You’re totally in love with Colton!” In the quiet hallway, she might as well have screamed that.
“Shhh! You don’t have to tell the whole world.”
She squeaks and starts jumping, “This is so exciting!”
“No it’s not. You can’t say anything. I’ve kept your secret about David. You have to keep mine. Please, Emma. Don’t say anything. Let me figure out what is going on first.”
As she stares at me, I can see the gears turning in her head. She really wants to meddle, but respects my wishes. I have done what she asked me, so now she has to do what I ask of her.
Linking our arms together, she starts pulling me towards the entertainment room. “Come on, let’s go watch a romantic comedy and dwell on the fact that our lives are nothing like that.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Colton seems to be the one doing the avoiding this time. The only time I see him is when we are training or if we ever watch a movie. That seems to be our group thing. It reminds me of Friends. Instead of Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Chandler, Joey and Ross meeting in the Central Perk for coffee, we all meet in the entertainment room for a movie. During these times, I sit with Liam while Colton sits brooding on the couch, on the farthest end from me.
While watching The Princess Bride, David calls from his seat across from me, “Ryanne, I look nothing like André the giant.”
“Oh my gosh. I totally forgot that I called you that! How did you remember that? That feels like forever ago.” During one of my first conversations with David, I called him André the giant right before he showed me the library at their home.
Tapping on his head, he says, “I have an excellent memory, oh little one.” I laugh and lean back against Liam. He has become my