Breaking Braydon by MK Harkins Page B

peeked over at me.
    “Keep your eyes on the road. I’m fine.” With that part, at least. “I haven’t talked to Erik again, you know, after, but I hope he just had an excited moment, and that will be the end of it. You heard about our breakthrough today?”
    “Yes, of course. The gossip about you and Erik was just a bonus.” He smiled and winked.
    “I’d hit you right now if you weren’t driving,” I snapped.
    He continued to laugh. “Oh, come on. You’ve got to admit, it’s rather funny. What was he thinking?”
    I tried to contain my giggles. “He wasn’t thinking.” Now that I had some distance from the situation, I saw the humor. “You should have seen his face when Martin tapped on the window.” I broke into peals of laughter. I knew I shouldn’t, but really, who does that?
    “You’ve gone and broken his poor heart. You’re a heartbreaker.” 
    My breath caught. “You don’t actually think I hurt his feelings, do you? I mean, he has lots of women to choose from. He’s wealthy, smart, and gorgeous. So, I’m sure it was a pity pass. Right?”
    “Jain.” He drew my name out in the most exasperated voice. “Why do you always do that?”
    “What?”
    “Sell yourself short. He didn’t make a pass out of pity. He wants you. I’ve already told you. Now, don’t go feeling guilty. He should have never done it the way he did. That was a big mistake. I think you were right, I believe he was overcome by the test results. But, even still, I think he would have eventually let his feelings be known. You have some decisions to make.”
    “What kind of decisions?”
    “The kind where you tell him if you’re going to give him a chance or shoot him down like all the others.”
    “There are no others.” What was he thinking?
    “How about Edward from 3D?” he asked.
    “Edward. Oh. He just asked me for coffee. I didn’t have time that morning. Remember? We had our conference that day.”
    “And Patrick, the man we always run into when we pick up Thai food.”
    “The guy in the business suit? How did you even know his name?”
    “He gave you his card and asked you to call him.”
    Hmm. Forgot about that one.
    “And then there’s Paul from accounting. He’s been asking you to lunch once a month for almost a year.”
    “He’s just friendly. I’m sure he asks everyone out to lunch.”
    Colin shook his head.
    “He doesn’t?” Oh, hell.
    “He’s never asked me, or anyone else in the company as far as I know.”
    “Oh.” It grew quiet in the car.
    I’ve always known I was closed off, but I never realized how much. A lot, apparently.
    “You’ll be happy to know I almost jumped out of my seat and attacked Braydon right in the middle of Angelo’s restaurant today,” I said proudly.
    I might as well have told Colin aliens had just landed by the expression on his face.
    “You did what?” He pulled the car to the side of the road and turned toward me.
    “I didn’t say I did anything. I almost did. Almost being the operative word. Just calm down, I didn’t ruin anything. I’m not going to mess up our funding with a potential relationship. But for the first time in forever, I actually felt like I wanted to be with someone. So, there’s still hope for me, don’t you think?”
    He didn’t say anything at first. He reached over and held me close. It was a comforting hug, although I was a little squished with the steering wheel in the way.
    After a few minutes, he said, “Yes. There’s hope for you. In fact, I don’t want you to hold back because of the funding issue. You should explore this if you have real feelings for this guy. I know it can be tricky with us all working together, but the kind of chemistry I witnessed between you two doesn’t happen every day. Hell, it doesn’t happen in every lifetime. You need to see where this might go.”
    “We’ll see him again this weekend at the Breast Cancer Fundraiser. Let’s see what he’s like in his element, around the people he