Page 458 of His Virgin Romance Series

“How could I let on?” I asked. “Quite apart from the fact that you were Jason’s sister, you were also sixteen. I was twenty; there was no way I could have acted on my feelings.”

She frowned at me with concentration. “The Christmas party,” she said softly. “That kiss…”

“I remember it,” I said, finally admitting to the truth after all these years. “I’ve always remembered it. To this day, it was the best kiss I’ve ever had. And I think that was because of you and what you meant to me…even though I hadn’t admitted to myself the extent of my feelings for you.”

Brie looked like she was processing everything I was telling her. “You remember,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry I lied to you,” I told her. “I just thought… I knew you expected me to acknowledge what had happened between us. It was the hardest thing in the world to sit across that breakfast table from you and act as though nothing had happened.”

“You were very convincing.”

“I had to be,” I said. “I couldn’t get involved with you. I was convinced that I had a loyalty to Jason to keep, and I needed to stay away from you. But that was just my excuse. The truth is… I was scared of committing myself to one person. I was scared of relationships. I was scared of screwing up with you. I knew I couldn’t afford to take that risk.”

“So you made the decision for me.”

“I’ve since come to realize how stupid and presumptuous that was of me,” I admitted. “I’m sorry for that, too.”

Brie shook her head at me. “Six years,” she said. “Six years you had me believing that that kiss meant nothing to you.”

“I was an idiot.”

“I watched you drive away with my brother that day,” she told me. “Then I went up to my bedroom and cried for an hour. My nose and eyes were so red and puffy that night, Mom thought I had caught a cold.”

I looked down at the carpet for a moment. “I haven’t treated you very well over the years, have I?”

“No,” Brie said bluntly. “You haven’t.”

I nodded. “I understand if you just want to kick me out of your room. I definitely deserve it. I just want you to know one thing before you decide what you want to do.”

“Which is?”

“I want to give this a shot, Brie,” I said, throwing caution to the wind and deciding to be brave. “I want you. I’ve wanted you since you were sixteen. When we had sex the other night, it was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. I was just scared of my own feelings, so I pushed you away like I did six years ago. I was lying when I told you I would have slept with anyone that night. There’s no one else, Brie. It’s only ever been you.

“In all these years, of all the women I’ve been with, you have always been the one constant. You were the one daydream I kept going back to. I don’t know if I’m going to be any good at a relationship. I don’t know if I’ll end up breaking your heart. All I know is that I want to give this one real shot, come what may.

“Because I just realized something. It’s worth the risk. You are worth the risk.”

I finished my little speech, knowing that I had just laid my heart bare for her. Now it was up to Brie. I stood my ground and waited for her verdict.

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