Page 49 of Cocky Player

I needed time to think when I wasn’t so thrown off course.

In the entryway, I slid into the Birkenstock sandals I’d kicked off when I entered and slid my purse strap over my forearm.“You don’t have to walk me down.”

“It’s late.”

I hadn’t heard that tone in his voice since the night he caught me in my parents’ garden, laced with anger and frustration.I didn’t need to look at Connor to know his face would be etched like marble.

He reached around me, and I couldn’t help but notice the strength of his muscles in his arms.The way his arm flexed as he pulled the door open and held it for me.On our way out, he grabbed his keys and fell into step next to me.

We reached the elevator and he punched the button to call for it like it’d personally offended him.

A thick wall of tension had grown between us with every step.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“You’re not.”

We stood next to each other like strangers.I was aware enough to know he was lying.Maybe I hadn’t hurt him, but it also wasn't the first time I’d pushed him away due to my own fears.And I had a feeling if I did this, if I walked away from Connor tonight, the odds of him giving me another chance diminished greatly.

It took forever for the elevator to arrive and I jumped at the ding of its arrival.Stepping in, I turned and caught Connor’s gaze on my backside before lifting and meeting mine.

“You have a nice ass,” he smirked.“Can’t help but look.”

“I wasn’t complaining.”

Maybe there was hope after all.

The doors closed and as soon as the elevator began its descent, he shoved his hand through his hair and sighed, gripping the rail at his hip with his other hand.“I’m not mad at you.I don’t want you to leave thinking that.But I am feeling like a fool for what I said, for pushing…for maybe reading too much into this.We can go back and keep this simple, you know.Forget the night ever happened.”

It would never be possible for me to forget Connor telling me he liked me.

“I wasn’t expecting to hear the things you said, and I don’t do well with surprises.I just need some time to process everything, what you said, how you feel, howIfeel.”

Based on the curl of his lips and the way he focused on the panel next to the door it still wasn’t the right thing to say.

“You asked for honesty,” I reminded him softly.

“I did, and you’re giving it.I can’t fault you for that.Not really.”

Yet he still looked like someone told him Santa Claus wasn’t real.

With a heavy sigh, he shoved his hands to his hips and I counted the speckled dots on the carpeted elevator floor until we landed with a soft bump and the doors opened.

He walked me to my car, a hand on my lower back guiding me down the street and standing at the threshold like a gentleman who’d been raised with class and manners.Such a dichotomy to how he so often behaved, it made me smile as I reached my car.

“Thank you for walking me to my car.”

He nodded.“I leave for training camp next Monday.Maybe we should take a couple weeks, give you the time you need.We can reconnect when I get back the following Friday.”

“That’s almost two weeks away.”

“You asked for time and space Brenna and it occurs to me that maybe I’ve been pushing you too far too fast, in a lot of different ways.We’ll step back.Give it a couple weeks, reevaluate then.”

He sounded so final, so resigned I couldn’t think to tell him I didn’t need that much time.Or space.

I wanted him.Liked him…possibly way more than he’d admitted to liking me.

But it was terrifying at the same time.When I said I needed time, I meant the night.Or a day to settle my thoughts before racing into something so unknown.

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