Page 41 of The Love Dare
He doesn’t love her.
Heneverwill.
And yet, a pitiful flash of hope still pulses through her when the door swings open and Tyler enters the room.
CHAPTER TWELVE
tyler
He can’t stop staringat her—hasn’t been able to stop all night. As soon as he walks through the door, he finds her, his eyes drawn by a magnetic charge too strong to fight. She’s focused on the floor, studying the woodgrains as though she’ll be tested on them later. It’s self-defense, he knows. He’s seen that look too many times before, taken it on as his own personal challenge, and tonight is no different. He can’t stand the way her delicate fingers wring, the way she’s let her black hair fall over her face like a curtain from the world. Nina must’ve told him twenty times not to call her first, to play it coy, but he’s been following her rules all fucking night and it’s really never been in his nature.
The minute Keith finishes his speech about true love and this process and vulnerability and god knows what else, Tyler steps up to the table. He takes the first golden puzzle piece off the ornate tray and calls out the one name he’s been waiting ten long hours to say.
“Winnie.”
Thirty heads turn toward her. The cameras whir as they zoom in for a close-up. She doesn’t move a muscle.
Wait.
Scratch that.
One muscle is moving—her mouth. Those plush red lips form barely distinguishable shapes, almost as if she’s…
Yes.Tyler fights a grin.She’s talking to herself.
And it must be quite the conversation, because she’s buried in it so deeply, she hasn’t noticed she’s become the sole focus of everyone’s attention.
God. This woman.
“Winnie,” he says again, lighter this time, humored.
Nothing.
Nada.
One of the girls snickers. The bleachers creak as a few of the others shift their weight to swap judgmental glances. She’s the butt of their jokes, just as Nina warned she would be, and it cuts Tyler that the only way he can keep her here with him is to simultaneously cast her out to the circling vultures.
God, he wishes he’d never signed up for this stupid show.
He wishes he’d had the courage to tell her how he felt before it came to this.
But he didn’t.
And he did.
So he goes with the only option he has left. He blocks out the cameras and the crew, ignores the other women, and speaks with the tone he’s only ever used when they were alone, deeper, and honest, and vulnerable in a way he’s never allowed himself to be with anyone else.
“Win.”
Her hazel eyes snap to his, shocked and disbelieving. He wants to march across the room, take her in his arms, and kiss her so thoroughly she’ll never look at him with doubt like this again. But he holds himself back—barely. Muscles straining, he grips the puzzle piece so fiercely he’s worried it might snap. ButNina’s threats sit like a weight, the only thing keeping him in check.
Our first one-on-one.
I can wait a day.
For Winnie’s sake, I can wait.
She looks nervously around the room, scanning faces and cameras, trying to confirm she’s not the only one who heard him call her name. Her body braces, as if waiting for a blow. When the girls in front of her step to the side to let her down, she moves so slowly, so full of hesitancy, he wants to scream.
