Page 102 of Just This Once

“Huh?” I gaped at him in confusion before remembering the whole Paul thing. Swiping that idea aside, I shook my head. “No. No. Not Paulie.”

“Then…who?”

I exhaled an impatient breath. “His name doesn’t matter.”

“Why would his name not—” Alec’s brows lowered ominously. “Son of a bitch. Did hehurtyou? You tell me this asshole’s name right now.”

When he started looking around for his phone as if to look up the guy’s details right then and there, I laughed and grabbed his hand. “No. He didn’t hurt me. Not at all. He just—he made me feel. He made me feel everything. And that—that’s never happened to me before. So I—it?—”

“Ah...That’swhy you came to Texas,” he realized with an assured nod. “Falling scared you.”

I swallowed thickly, thinking he had been asking why I’d come over thismorning, not why I’d come back to town at all.

Oh well.

“You can tell me his name, you know,” he said more practically now. “I’m not going to kill him, I swear.”

Yeah, he claimed thatnow.

I couldn’t lie to him, though. Not today. So I simply avoided the question by saying, “I’ve known him for a while, and I was always fascinated by him and just—just curious, you know. So I decided why not have a little taste? What could one time hurt? It was just supposed to be thatonetime, too, to appease my?—”

Stopping abruptly, I cringed at Alec who was watching me with wide eyes and lifted eyebrows. “Is this too much information to tell a brother?”

He shrugged. “Probably. But we’re not normal siblings. We didn’t grow up together. And besides, now I’m invested. You can’t stop there.”

I smiled and rolled my eyes. It was just like Alec to see everything as a story. He was probably picturing it in movie format, playing it through a reel in his head right now.

“Okay,” I said with a nod. “So it was just supposed to be that once,” I repeated. “But one time morphed into two and then three. And then… I lost count.”

“Naturally,” Alec answered with an amused grin.

Laughing uneasily, I admitted, “Then he did this one small thing that was just so unbelievably amazing. I didn’t even think he had it in him. He’s so closed off from emotional stuff. But he showed me a glimpse, and—” I shook my head still flabbergasted by it all, still hearing his voice in my ear as he sang along to the Benson Boone song.

Alec hadn’t been lying when he’d told me he was invested, though.

“And then what?” he demanded.

I looked at him and swallowed. “It happened in an instant.” I snapped my fingers. “I fell. It was the scariest, most amazing, thrilling thing to ever happen to me. Just like that, he became everything. I would’ve done anything for him.” Flushing at the memory, I ducked my head and admitted, “And I kind ofdid.”

Alec furrowed his brow suspiciously. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”

I laughed. “What?No. Nothing like that. I just—everything is so different now. I don’t know how I’m supposed to face him again and act normal. He absolutely owns me, and I’m not exactly comfortable with that.”

“Yeah,” Alec agreed with a slow nod, looking pensive. “I could see how that could make a person—” When words failed him, he winced.

I snorted. “You have no idea what I’m talking about right now, do you?”

“Not even a little,” he confessed, only to shrug with a bashful smile. “But I’ve never fallen in love, so?—”

“It’s weird,” I admitted. “I feel all vulnerable and exposed, which makes me dread the next time I have to see him. And yet I’m craving that hit of explosive endorphins that only he can give me. So I can’twaitto see him again, too.”

“Huh,” Alec murmured with a nod. “Interesting.”

“So what do I do?” I asked.

His eyes widened, obviously not expecting to be asked to give any kind of advice.

“Well, have you told him how you feel?”

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