CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
DREW
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I’m a fucking asshole.This is not news to me.My friends have told me I’m honest to a fault, and I’ve never seen a problem with that.Then again, I have four best friends, a father, Damon, and Derek.
My life is absent of a lot of women, sexual interactions aside, and the need to navigate the difference between the sexes is not usually necessary.
Nor to be frank, do I usually care.
Tonight I do.
Not just tonight...Gemma.
Seeing her fighting to hold it together was like a dose of fucking kryptonite.Her falling face sent a laser to the steel around my heart, almost paralyzing me.
It did.
Enough that I sat there while she raced out of the restaurant.Finally, I came to my senses and tossed my napkin on the table and went after her.
The problem is, I can’t give her the answers she wants.Either way, she will be hurt, and I am not willing to hurt her.
I can’t fucking stand seeing her in pain.
Striding down the awful patterned carpeted hallway of the hotel, I call out her name.
“Gemma.”
She stops, card in hand, lowers her face, and I almost hear her sigh.
When I reach her, I wrap my body around hers, take the card and turn her to face me.Vulnerable wet eyes meet mine, and I feel it deep inside my heart.In a place that shouldn’t be reachable by...anyone.
“Drew—”
“I’m sorry,” I rasp.
“You didn’t say anything that wasn’t true,” she whispers.
“Invite me in.Let’s order something to eat.A bottle of wine.I don’t want you on your own.”My voice is thick.
She lets out a sharp, emotion filled laugh.“I’ve been on my own for a year.”
I lift her chin.“Well, you aren’t alone now.”
What am I doing?
I have no idea, but it would take a natural disaster to separate me from her.I’m not leaving her.I want to protect her.
I want to fix all her problems and wrap her in my arms foreve—
Stop.
Just for tonight.