50 Shades of Drake 3 and 4

Chapter Forty-Eight

    Destiny didn't know what to say. Despite the fact that she knew how Brian felt about her, the emotion pouring out of him still managed to take her by surprise. "I'm not going to make any rash decisions," she assured him. "It's just an idea that I'm tossing around."

    He stared at her without speaking.

    She sighed. "Maybe you're right, and we need to get out of the house."

    He resumed to staring out of the window.

    "But first..."

    "Yeah?" he muttered irritably, still looking out of the window.

    "Can you hold me again for awhile?"

    She thought that those words would cause him to look at her, cause the expression on his face to relax. But he didn't even glance at her. Several moments passed before he said, "I should say no."

    Stung by rejection, she backed away from him.

    "You know how I feel about you, and you're toying around with me," he said, finally turning in her direction. "I thought that you had feelings for me, thought that you weren't acting on them because of Aubrey. But now Aubrey's gone, and you're talking about leaving, too. If you're talking about leaving, it means you don't feel anything for me at all."

    "I just saw proof that he's really gone," she said, her voice shaking. "So I'm sorry if I'm trying to think about my options, seeing as he's the only reason I came to Toronto in the first place."

    Brian took a step towards her. "Just because he's the only reason you came doesn't mean he should be the only reason you stay."

    "I'm sorry about last night, but I can't just jump all over you because I know that Aubrey is really gone."

    "I wouldn't expect you to," Brian said quickly. "Just...don't casually say you're going to end up leaving Toronto."

    He says "leaving Toronto," but he means "leaving me," she thought sadly.

    He closed his eyes and sighed. "I know I'm being an emotional idiot, all right? But that's what the thought of you leaving does to me. The intelligent part of me knows that it's too soon to talk about a relationship or anything happening between us. Especially in the mind frame you must be in after seeing that news report." The look in his eyes softened and he paused for a moment. "Before you came into my life, I didn't know what I was doing. There wasn't any woman I could see myself ending up with, not after what I went through with my ex. There was no woman who held my attention the way you do."

    She wrapped her arms around herself and broke eye contact with him. She had to; it felt like she was losing herself in his blazing blue eyes. "This is too heavy for me right now."

    "I understand."

    "Let's just get out of the house, like you suggested," she told him. "I think being cooped up is driving both of us crazy." When she dared a look at him, he had a small, sad smile on his face.

    "Yeah. All right."

    "Can I change clothes now?" she asked him, trying to alleviate some of the intensity with light-hearted humor.

    It worked. His smile stretched wider and he slowly shook his head.

    She grabbed her purse and her phone.

    He grabbed his cell phone and his briefcase.

    Her eyes anchored on the briefcase, then lifted up to his eyes. "Why would you need to bring that where we're going? We're not going to work."