On Dublin Street The Bonus Material - Samantha Young Page 0,15

he took a step back, crossing his arms over his chest. When Jocelyn stared at his body and flushed he almost growled. He’d bet his life she’d just had a dirty thought about him and instead of pouncing on that he had to stand here and work out what the hell had been going on lately. If he didn’t know she was worth the drama…

“Ellie told you she had lunch with me and Isla, and that I was all over Isla?” He repeated slowly, needing the facts absolutely straight before he reacted.

“Yes.”

His wee sister. His bloody annoying wee sister had fucked up. “If she hadn’t just had brain surgery I swear to God I’d kill her.” He should never have confided in her his plan to give Jocelyn space. He knew Ellie hadn’t agreed with it but he’d never thought she would meddle and make everything worse. And Jocelyn. Oh he was going to deal with her. How bloody fickle did she think he was? How clearer could he make his feelings for her?

Braden stalked her and this time she did take a step back to avoid their bodies meeting. “I never had lunch with Isla and Ellie. They met when she and Adam stopped by the club to drop off a USB stick I left at the flat. They met for two seconds.”

At least Jocelyn had the decency to look chagrined. “Why would she tell me that?”

He turned away, his whole body humming with frustration and he couldn’t bloody have a go at the one who had caused it because she’d just gone through something he couldn’t imagine. But when she was back to 100%, they were going to have a little chat. He sighed. “I don’t know. Probably because I told her I was giving you space as part of the next stage in my plan to get you back, and Ellie didn’t agree it was a good idea. Apparently, Ellie thought jealousy was the next step.” He shot her a look now, perturbed to realize that jealousy hadn’t worked. He knew enough to know that Jocelyn felt possessive of him. It was disconcerting to realize, however, that in this case that feeling had made her run from him not toward him. “Apparently she was wrong.” Braden wandered around her room slowly, trying to process this. His possessiveness of Jocelyn made him fight harder for her. If it did the opposite for Jocelyn, he feared how long it would take to break down her barriers. The idea exhausted him. Life was too short for this shit. Hadn’t Ellie just proven that?

“I still don’t understand. I met Isla, buddy, she’s exactly your type, and she was definitely flirting with you.”

That heat, that almost growl in her words, sparked to life the hope Braden needed to cling to. “Why do you care?” he found himself grinning as he ran his hands along her bookshelf. A bookshelf filled with love stories. God, she was in such fucking denial. “You said you don’t—” he cut off abruptly as his fingers caught the edges of a ticket.

A plane ticket.

To Virginia. He shifted it, looking for the return ticket. But there was only one ticket. One way.

“What?”

Braden picked it up, turning toward her as his ears filled with the rushing of blood in his ears. She thought she could leave him? She thought she could just fucking give up? Hurt and rage suffused him as he glared at her and held up the e-ticket. “Going somewhere?”

“I’m going home,” she blurted out. And then she paled at whatever she saw on his face.

If he stayed in that room with her, he would explode. He would say shit he didn’t mean.

He’d fuck up as royally as her.

So he left.

But not because he was done fighting. He tucked the e-ticket into his pocket out of sight.

This time Jocelyn would come to him.

Braden tried to shrug off his foul mood as he sat with his wee sister but he felt a complicated mix of worry and irritation with her. And his foul mood toward Jocelyn filled the entire apartment. Not wanting to overshadow Ellie’s return home, Braden decided to leave.

He stewed all the way home, anticipating Jocelyn realizing he hadn’t put her ticket back. He wondered what she’d do. How she’d feel? All that really mattered, he decided, as he let himself into his flat, was that she chased him.

Once he had her alone… well he was going to love and fuck the stubbornness right out of her