She couldn’t handle this right now. Not with everything else. Her stomach was roiling. It didn’t make sense. This was Eric.
Gay Eric.
Fucking his ex-girlfriend like he was most definitely Not Gay Eric.
She took the stairs, two at a time. Her heart rate skyrocketed as she nearly tripped over the final stair in an effort to escape the reality of what she had witnessed in Eric’s bedroom. She retrieved her high heels and purse from where she had left them and made a dash for the exit.
“Bri,” Eric called out to her.
That was followed by a high-pitched, “Are you fucking kidding me right now, Eric?”
Bryna couldn’t even think about this. Couldn’t think about the fact that Audrey was in Eric’s bed. Couldn’t think about what this meant for her friendship with Eric. Couldn’t think about why she felt like her heart was shattering into a million tiny pieces.
Pushing the door open, she stared in anger as the drought that had pervaded Vegas for so long finally cracked. The curtains opened in the heavens, and water rained from the sky, threatening to flood her desert home. But it didn’t matter that she had blown her hair out or that she had on fresh makeup or that the rain might ruin her designer clothes. All that mattered was getting away.
She located her keys, punched the unlock button, and watched the lights flash at her. Bryna dove into the downpour and rushed for her parked Aston Martin. She was soaked within seconds. The water ripped at her body with a ferocity that matched her own temper. She yanked the door open to her car and tossed her purse and high heels into the passenger seat.
Eric called her name again from the front door, and she made the mistake of looking back. He stood there, silhouetted in the doorframe, in nothing but a pair of dark jeans. He hadn’t bothered with putting on a shirt in his haste to get to her.
She gulped. She couldn’t do this. She shook her head. Her wet hair smacked against her face. He didn’t appear to care as he barreled out of his house and into the rain. He cleared the distance before she even remembered she was supposed to get into the car.
“Where are you going?” he yelled over the beating of the rain on the pavement.
“Home.”
He slammed his hand against the door to her car. “Goddamn it, Bri. What are you even doing here tonight?”
She jumped as her door closed. She was at a loss for words. He had followed her.
“You said you were exhausted,” she said.
“You said you were going to be at Posse all night.”
“Yeah, well, Stacia decided to ambush me and tell me she’s dating Pace, so I thought coming to get drunk with you was a better alternative.”
“Stacia and Pace?” he demanded.
“At least I’m not the only one shocked by the information.” She closed her eyes against the rain. “I guess I should have known there was a real reason for you being exhausted tonight. I didn’t know you had plans.” She gestured to his house.
His eyes stormed over. “Bryna—”
“I should go,” she cut him off.
“No! Why didn’t you run to your millionaire, Hugh?”
“Are you joking? Why were you fucking her?” she screamed, unable to hold back the rage boiling inside of her. Her hands were trembling. “You said you were gay!”
“What?” he yelled. “I never fucking said that!”
“Yes, you did! At the national championship game after you kissed me!”
He had said it…well, all but said it.
“No fucking way!”
“When you and I first met, Gates said that you’d told him you were gay!” she shrieked.
“I never fucking 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 fuck 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 fucking 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 fucking 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 fucking 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 fuck 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.