Dropping The Ball - A New Year’s Billionaire Romance - Weston Parker Page 0,57

I didn’t know how.”

All the times he’d said he had something to tell me flashed in my mind. Covering my face with my hands, I tried to contain the humiliation trying to burn me up from the inside out. “I stopped you. I said it didn’t matter.”

“You did, but I should’ve come out with it anyway.” He tried to pry my hands away but I wouldn’t let him. “I’m so sorry, Ry. Truth be told, I don’t know if I would’ve told you. I’ve been going back and forth about it for weeks.”

“Weeks,” I repeated under my breath. “You must think I’m such an idiot. I was such an idiot. I knew there was something familiar about you, but there’s been so much going on that I just kept telling myself I was imagining it.”

“You weren’t.” His voice was tender, but it was laced with the same kind of ache I felt deep down in my soul. “Can we talk about this, please? Just look at me, baby. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I’m thinking that I thought I was crazy for feeling such a connection to you when I’ve known you for less than a month. I thought there was something cosmic between us, but it turns out we just used to know each other.”

“I’ve run into a lot of people I used to know,” he grunted with some of his confidence seeping back into his tone. “Never felt this way about any of them.”

The words jolted me all the way to my bones. “The only thing I’m feeling right now is confused. I’m going to bed. I need some time to process this, Carter. Alone.”

Climbing out of the hot tub so fast it was like someone had told me there was a venomous snake in it, I grabbed my towel and wrapped it around myself as I hauled ass up to my room.

Carter Demming.

I couldn’t fucking believe it. He’d been right here all this time, and it had never even occurred to me that it might be him. Not even almost.

What made it worse was that I’d always had that silly crush on him, but that had been forever ago. Was what I was feeling now simply an extension of that? Had I recognized him on a subconscious level and thrown myself at him now just because it was what I used to want?

Maybe. I couldn’t exclude the possibility. I also didn’t know what any of it would mean. Would it even mean anything at all?

Clearly, that same chemistry still existed between us. As adults, it just ran so much deeper than it used to. It was downright weird to feel so strongly drawn to him, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

After taking the longest shower in history, I crawled into my bed in my most comfortable pajamas, but I couldn’t fall asleep. I just couldn’t understand why he hadn’t told me, especially before we fucking slept together.

And yet, I couldn’t exactly be too pissed off at him about it because it’d all been at my behest. I’d made the moves, even when I’d known there was something I was missing. I’d known he wanted me too, and that was all I’d been able to think about. We wanted each other, and therefore, we should be together. It’d seemed so simple.

Never in my wildest dreams had I thought that he might be trying to put the brakes on because of my brother. I almost laughed when I thought about what Billy might have to say about all this.

I was embarrassed enough as it was. What if Carter and Billy still spoke to each other, and he’d told him how boldly I’d gone after his best friend?

Billy would never, ever let me live it down. I didn’t really believe Carter had been laughing at me behind my back all this time. He sure as shit hadn’t turned me down, and I knew he hadn’t done anything he hadn’t wanted to. The man was over six feet tall and had muscles the size of a freaking truck now. No way could I have made him do a single thing he didn’t want to.

But still.

He hadn’t told me, even when it was obvious that I didn’t know. Thinking back to the emotions I’d seen from him with my own two eyes in the hot tub, I knew that he’d told the truth when he said he didn’t know if he ever would’ve told me. I’d also seen the conflict there, though.