Breaking Away (Assassins, #5)(44)

“His name was Kevin; I met him in New York. We both danced for the same company. He was older than I was. I thought he was everything I wanted, but boy, was I wrong.”

He watched as she took in a deep breath, still not looking at him, before going on. “I thought we were going to get married and have little dancing babies, but he was already married with a child.”

“While he was with you?” Phillip asked, already hating the guy.

“Yeah. It completely broke me, and it has taken me a long time to get over him. I sometimes think I still love him, and I know that there will never be a love like that again. That’s why I’m emotionally unavailable, because I don’t want to be in a relationship with some guy and have him fall in love with me when I can’t fall for him. It isn’t fair, but it’s how I’m programmed now.”

“Are you sure?”

She looked up, confused. “Sure?”

“That you’re programmed like that. Have you tried after douchebag?”

She smiled, only for a second, before shaking her head. “No, I haven’t.”

“Then how do you know?”

She eyed him for a second and then asked, “Are you suggesting I try with you?”

He didn’t answer right away. He could see in her eyes that she was looking for a reason to run, and he’d be damn if he was going to give it to her. He had to play his cards right or this woman would shut him out so quickly that he wouldn’t know what hit him, and he couldn’t let that happen. He enjoyed her way too much. If she wanted to keep things light, fine, he could work with that. It might be something she wanted now, but if he worked hard and kept his eyes on the prize, he would score.

And if there was one thing he was good at, it was scoring. On and off the ice.

With a careless chuckle, Phillip said, “Heck no, I like what we have. I’m just saying.”

She eyed him only for a second before smiling back at him. “Me too.”

“Good, now hurry up and finish, so I can take you home and make you scream.”

She laughed. “Do I even need to ask how you plan on doing that?”

Shooting her a grin, he said, “Nope, I’m pretty sure you know exactly what that entails.”

“Yeah, me naked.”

“Yup, and in my mouth.”

She took in a sharp breath before biting her lip. Looking up at him with heavy-lidded eyes, she breathlessly said, “I’m suddenly full.”

“Good, let’s go.”

Throwing three twenties on the table, he stood and reached for the woman that he hoped to make his. It wasn’t going to be easy, and it was going to take a lot of work to build the trust they needed for a relationship, but for once, Phillip Anderson had met the woman he was ready to try for.





“DON’T YOU think we bought enough boy stuff?”

Claire snickered beside Reese as she held all the blue crap Harper kept throwing at her. Harper shook her head as she continued to pick up little blue outfits.

“No way, they are having a great sale!”

“The same sale they’ll have in two weeks! Why don’t you wait?”

Harper turned and set Reese with a dirty look. “You can leave.”

Reese glared right back at Harper as Claire laughed beside them. “No, you promised me food.”

“Yes, so hush. Let me shop, and then I’ll feed you.”

Letting out an annoyed breath, Reese knew she should have never gone over to Harper’s house today. She knew today was when they would find out the sex of their baby but no, Claire wanted the music from the dance they we working on and, because Reese had a soft spot for the girl, she rushed over to get it to her. Then Harper promised her food to celebrate the baby but instead of going straight to the restaurant like she thought, she was parading through damn Carters with Harper as she squealed and gushed over every damn blue thing in the store.

It was annoying.

Reese loved Ally and Dimitri, she did, and now she would love the new baby, but she hated shopping for baby stuff. It always turned the mom-to-be into a freaking idiot, cooing and gushing over miniature-sized things for a baby that was going to grow out of it faster than a weed, and then shit and piss all over it. It was insane and stupid. Why couldn’t the kid just wear diapers for the first year? Why spend thousands of dollars on clothes and things when the little thing was just going to grow out of it!

It made no sense and completely boggled Reese’s mind, which was the main reason why she was never having children. It wasn’t that she didn’t love kids. She was a dance teacher and she loved her niece and nephew, but kids were freaking expensive and then there was the chance that you could mess them up, or some f*ck up could f*ck them up, and then what? With Ally and Dimitri, she knew they were taken care of. Harper and Piper were two strong women, both married to good, strong men, but Reese would never find a man like the Titov brothers. She wasn’t going to put herself through looking for another man that would more than likely hurt her like Kevin, so instead of having that fairy tale ending, she would settle for the cool aunt.

And she was cool with that, but when a quick image of Phillip holding a little brown-haired, blue-eyed baby came to mind, she stopped and braced herself against the wall. She had no clue where that crazy image came from, but it needed to go the hell away. Things with Phillip were light and fun. He was great, and they had a blast together, but babies were in no way, shape, or form ever going to happen between them. That would involve her actually opening up to someone, and that was a laughable event in itself! Writing the image off as a reminder to go to the OBGYN to make sure her IUD was well in place and nothing more, Reese groaned as she followed Harper around the damn store.