Saved by the Crush's Brother - Maggie Dallen Page 0,36

but I never knew him. Not really. But I’d like to think I know you.”

He nodded. “You do.”

I licked my lips. That dark intensity in his gaze had my belly doing flip flops and my heart aching with emotions that were too wild to name. I’d been giving this so much thought ever since he’d walked out. I’d talked Max’s ear off about it, and had even made Alex listen as I talked through what I’d felt for him...which was nothing. Nothing real, at least. He’d been a fantasy, a placeholder for all my romantic dreams until the right guy came along.

“I don’t think…” I had to lick my lips again because my mouth was dry. And then it was hard to breathe because his eyes followed the movement, landing on my lips and staying there as if fascinated by the sight.

I cleared my throat and tried again. “I don’t think I was ready for real. I think it was easier to like someone from afar who was so...easy to like. But that’s not the same thing as actually getting to know someone and then liking them.” His eyes moved up to meet mine. “Am I making sense?”

He nodded slowly as he moved forward. Sliding a hand behind my neck, he tipped my face up toward his and leaned down. “I like you, too, Avery.” His voice was so soft, so low. I pressed a hand to his chest and felt it rumble. “I like you so much it scares me.”

I nodded, breathless from the words and his closeness. “I know.”

And I did. Because I was starting to know him. Alex might have been competitive but Cristian... He’d learned to go in the opposite direction rather than compete and fail. He’d learned that loyalty to his mom meant losing his dad, and that caring about one person meant sacrificing someone else.

When his lips finally closed over mine, my breath slipped out on a sigh. The world felt like it shifted ever so slightly so everything and everyone fell into the perfect position. I went up on tiptoe as he crushed me to him like he might never let go.

His lips grazed over mine as he pulled back slightly. “You know, if we make this real...I’m all in. I can’t do halfway, not when it comes to loyalty or...love.”

My breath hitched at the L-word and a smile tugged at my lips. “That’s what I like about you. Nothing with you is surface level. Nothing about you is fake.”

He leaned down and kissed me again. “So this...it’s real?”

The vulnerability in his voice had me squeezing my arms around him tight as my heart fluttered wildly in my chest. “Yeah. This is real.”

He lifted me off of my feet and moved me further into his room, his lips curving up to match my ridiculous, giddy grin. “Then I guess I only have one question for you, Avery Lawson.”

I arched my brows. “What’s that?”

He leaned down and nuzzled my nose with his. “Will you be my date for homecoming?”

I laughed as my head fell back. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Epilogue

At Homecoming

Avery

“You know,” I said as I tugged Cristian’s lapel and straightened his corsage. “For a guy who claims not to be a romantic….” I peeked up at him with a smile. “You’re awfully romantic.”

His slow grin made me breathless. Would I ever not be affected by that smile?

I highly doubted it.

His arms wrapped around me and we moved in time to the slow beat even though we were still hovering by the door. I was keeping an eye out for my friends and while Cristian wouldn’t admit it, I was pretty sure he was waiting on Alex since he didn’t have any friends here at his old high school.

We’d told Alex he could come with us in the limo Cristian had hired for the night. I know, right? A limo. My guy was going all out to make sure I had the romantic night of my dreams.

I leaned into him. I wasn’t sure if he got it yet, but he didn’t have to do the roses and the limo and the candlelit dinner—I mean, I appreciated it, don’t get me wrong.

But I now knew that as long as I was with Cristian, anything we did could be romantic.

Even ordering in Chinese while we took care of a screaming baby, which was how we’d spent the last couple evenings.

Alex had stepped up with his baby duties, and one of those nights it was actually the