Dropping The Ball - A New Year’s Billionaire Romance - Weston Parker Page 0,107

like I would burst from the feeling, so I said it again. Rylee stared into my eyes, the corners of hers tipped up from her spreading smile.

“Does that mean that you also don’t mind that I just told the entire world that I love you when I’ve never said it to you before?”

“Are you kidding?” Bringing her hands up her sides, I ran them over her shoulders to her neck and caught the underside of jaw in them. “Every asshole on earth knows you’re mine now. They know that you’re spoken for.”

“Are you speaking for me, Carter Demming?” she asked, the light in her eyes so radiant that it brought a smile to my lips.

“I’d never actually speak for you because I never know what the hell is about to come out of your mouth, but in the other way? Fuck yes. Consider both of us spoken for.”

Stroking my thumbs over her cheeks, I slanted my mouth over hers and kissed her over and over again. She pushed up on her toes to deepen the kiss, running her hands through my hair before spreading them out over my shoulders and bringing them back to my nape.

A throat clearing behind us made us break our kiss, but we didn’t put any space between us. I tossed a scowl at whoever had interrupted us, and it only got worse when my gaze landed squarely on Nathan fucking Biles.

The cocky look he always wore was gone, replaced by a pale-faced moron who shuffled uncertainly on his feet. He cleared his throat again when Rylee turned slowly in my arms to face him.

“I hope you know that I never meant to hurt you, Rylee,” he said, his previously confident tone now shaky. “Everything I did was only so you’d come out and tell the truth.”

“Was it you all along?” she asked. Her fingers wrapped around my wrists resting around her hips. The only tell that she was nervous to be in his presence again was the slight tightening of her grip. Otherwise, she appeared completely unshaken. “The threats, the bird, the letters. It was all you, wasn’t it?”

He shuffled some more, his eyes dropping to his feet. “You have your job to do and I have mine. There were so many people rooting for you to come back, and when you didn’t, I knew I’d have to try something different to get you to open up.”

“So you threatened me?” Her voice was low now, dangerous. “How did you even get into my apartment?”

Over the last few weeks, I’d also come to the conclusion that Nathan was the most likely suspect to have been behind everything. Seeing his face now, I knew that my suspicions, and Rylee’s, had been correct.

He practically squirmed under the intensity of both of our gazes, looking anywhere but directly at us. Eventually, he sighed and threw his hands up in the air. “Honestly, you’re lucky it was me. Anyone could’ve gotten in there. At least I was just pushing for the truth. I’d never hurt you, Rylee. Ever.”

“You broke into my apartment and left a dead bird on my pillow,” she said flatly. “I had to move to a different building and hire a security firm to feel safe again and to reassure my family and friends that I was actually safe. Do you really think that didn’t hurt me?”

Keeping myself reined in wasn’t easy, but Rylee had this. I was right here if she needed me, and she knew it. She had this, and I wouldn’t take the moment from her.

For now.

My muscles were bunched, my fists begging for another go at him. Depending on what he said next, I might just lose my tenuous hold on my self-control. I owed him at least one punch—and that was just for what he’d said about me up there.

Rylee owed him a pummeling at the very least. Or I would pummel him for her. Lady’s choice.

She didn’t flinch as she held his eyes firmly with hers. “You just went up there and told the entire world that I was done. You don’t think that hurt me? The news of my MS is mine and mine alone to share, but you took that upon yourself as well. My own body can malfunction at any moment, and you used my illness as click-bait. As tabloid fodder to keep yourself relevant.”

She was breathing deeply, but her voice was steady. “I checked with Jules. You never said you wanted to speak to me about what