Page 524 of His Virgin Romance Series

BRIE

His explanation sent a rage of emotion surging through me. At first, I found it laughably funny, then I realized how heartbreaking it all was, and then lastly came the anger. He had done all this just to get out of hurting me in the future? He had done all this because he might, possibly, maybe, perhaps, one-day screw things up between us?

Didn’the realize that not being with him would hurt me either way? Whether it was now or ten years from now, it would always hurt, because Seth was my soulmate. He was the person I was meant to be with and no matter how it happened or when it happened it would hurt to not be with him.

I was willing to try and move on when I had assumed he wanted nothing more to do with me. But to know that he still had feelings for me and had pushed me away for this hypothetical future scenario was mindboggling.

“Brie,” he said.

The sound of his voice saying my name was the catalyst. I walked forward and without even thinking about it, my hand whizzed through the air and made contact with the side of his face. Seth’s face snapped back, but his body remained motionless. We both froze in place and a moment later, he looked towards me with eyes that were tortured and uncertain.

“I guess I deserved that,” he said softly.

I tried to push back the tears as I faced him. “You deserve worse.”

“I know,” he nodded. “Brie… I’m so sorry.”

I felt a tear slip free, and I tried to brush it away quickly. Seth moved towards me as though he wanted to hold me, but I held up my hand and took a step back from him.

“No,” I said. “You don’t get to comfort me—not after you did what you did.”

He stopped immediately and dropped his hand. We stood like that for a long time, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to break the silence.

“Would you like to sit down?” Seth asked at last.

I nodded silently, and we walked towards his desk. Instead of sitting in his usual seat, Seth chose to sit in the chair opposite mine so that we were only inches apart. I pushed back the remaining tears from my eyes and glanced up towards him. His eyes were fixed on me and he looked truly sorry.

“Why didn’t you talk to me about all this?” I asked, breaking the long silence.

“Because I knew what you would say,” I said. “You would try and convince me that it would be different with us.”

“And what’s the real problem, Seth?” I demanded. “I think the real problem is that you have no confidence in yourself.”

“It is,” he acknowledged. “I realized that just recently.”

“So what are you trying to say?” I asked. “You don’t believe you have the capacity to give our relationship a fair shake, you don’t believe you can be there for me? Or is it that you don’t know if you can be faithful to me?”

“I was scared of all those things,” he admitted.

“Why?”

He paused for a moment and I saw the uncertainty in his eyes. “Because I am my father’s son,” he said. “And, I took over his empire. Mom left him because she was sick of waiting around for a man who was more in love with his empire than with his family.”

“I get it,” she sighed. “I understand why that was a problem for them. But we’re not them Seth, how could you assume it would be the same for us?”

“Because that has been the case for every relationship I’ve had before you,” he said. “Do you know that my longest relationship before you lasted three months? Three months—that’s it.”

“Did you love any of your ex-girlfriends?”

“No,” he replied. “I can say that with every confidence. You’re the only woman I’ve ever loved.”

The moment the words were out of his mouth, he froze as though his deepest secret had just been found out. I looked at him with wide eyes. “What did you just say?”

“I…”

I could see him grappling with the words in his head. It looked like he was surprised himself, as though the realization that he had finally fallen in love with someone was a reality he had never envisioned for himself.

“I said, you’re the only woman… I’ve ever loved,” Seth said slowly, as though he needed to hear it himself, too.

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