Gold (All that Glitters #2)(63)

“What?” he yelled. “I never f*cking said that!”

“Yes, you did! At the national championship game after you kissed me!”

He had said it…well, all but said it.

“No f*cking way!”

“When you and I first met, Gates said that you’d told him you were gay!” she shrieked.

“I never f*cking said that to him. He said you were trouble and a hot mess. That it would be smart for me not to be interested in you. I thought he meant you were a slut and a bad person. That’s why I treated you like shit all last semester. Then, I got to know you, and I realized that wasn’t the person you really were. It was the person you showed everyone else.”

Bryna’s jaw locked. She couldn’t believe Gates had said that, that he had told her Eric was gay, so they would stay apart.

“Then, what the f*ck were you talking about at the national championship game?”

“Audrey!” He threw his arm out at the house. “I’ve kept her a secret from everyone. I thought you knew we were still sleeping together.”

Bryna’s mouth dropped open. She stepped away from him. “You’ve been sleeping together this whole f*cking time?”

She didn’t know why it shocked her. It wasn’t like she hadn’t slept with Andrew and then Hugh, but still, it did. She had been so sure that Eric was gay that she couldn’t even reconcile this information with reality.

“I thought you knew.”

“No!” she shrieked. “No, I never f*cking knew.”

He reached for her, and she backed away.

“Don’t touch me.”

His hands went into his soaked hair, and he turned his face up to the sky. He let loose a primal growl. When he met her eyes again, he looked determined, focused. “You said you wanted a guy who could take care of you and that we would never f*cking happen. You said that you would never be comfortable dating me or any guy.”

“I was comfortable because you were a nonthreat! You were gay!”

“Fuck!” he cried. “I backed off because I didn’t want to scare you. I wasn’t sure what was happening or if you were really the person I wanted. Everything was just happening, and then you ground it to a stop.”

Everything seemed to become crystal clear. The reason he had been pissed about her kissing him in front of Audrey. The consequences to her actions for that night. The way he’d seemed to notice her but kept his distance.

Fuck, I’ve been blind. Horribly blind.

“Why are you so angry anyway?” he asked, stepping closer to her. “Why did you break that bottle, looking ready to murder someone?”

“I am shocked!”

“Don’t lie to me!” he yelled at her. “Tell me why.”

He moved into her space until she was leaning against the hood of the car. Rain still poured down between them.

“Tell me.”

“No!” she yelled. She pushed against his chiseled chest, wanting desperately to keep herself together.

“Tell me the truth, Bri.” He stared at her. “Tell me it’s because you want me.”

“No.” She defiantly shook her head from side to side as her heart beat in time to the rain.

“Well, I can’t keep lying. You might be able to pretend, but I can’t.”

“This is insane! You were the one upstairs, bending some bitch over your bed!” she spat at him.

“I was ending things with Audrey tonight!”

“It sure as hell didn’t look like it!”

“I couldn’t do it anymore. I was ending it, and then I was going to tell you the truth, whether or not you wanted to give up the bullshit. I can’t pretend anymore. I don’t know what the f*ck this is, but I’ve wanted to do this for too damn long without any excuses in our way.”

“Do what?” she screamed. Her lungs felt raw.

She was so angry, and he looked furious.

Then, he pushed himself against her, buried his hands into her soaking wet hair, and kissed her lips with all the pent-up sexual tension coursing between them. She beat against his chest as he demanded a reaction from her. She hit him twice more, and then her mind seemed to forget why she was resisting. She didn’t want this to stop. Slowly, she relented into his kisses.

Water poured down their faces, mingling with their kiss. She moaned against his mouth, and their tongues met in perfect unison. This was their third kiss, but for the first time, she truly savored him. He tasted like pure heaven. A touch of everything that was right in her life. He pushed her arms up around his neck and covered her body with his own. They molded together, both soaked through.

A bolt of lightning tore through the sky in the distance, and thunder crashed overhead. They both jolted at the interruption. Eric glanced up at the sky and then back down at Bryna. His smile was one of pure joy. Like he wouldn’t want to do anything else or be anywhere else in that moment.

His lips were on hers again. Harder. More desperate. Seeking out the one thing that she couldn’t give to anyone. Yet it was perfection. Every nerve in her body was attuned to his touch.

This was what she had always been missing.

Yet her emotions roiled through her body. How can he kiss me like this after he’d had his dick in some other girl? If he had wanted to be with Bryna, he’d had a million opportunities to tell her the truth. Yeah, she had said she wasn’t comfortable with him, but then when she was comfortable, he could have told her the truth. The truth was at his fingertips at every opportunity. He couldn’t pull this bullshit because she had caught him with his ex. She couldn’t pull a one-eighty on her life when there was so much f*cking uncertainty.