“I don’t want to tell you,” I whispered.
His eyes narrowed. “Why not?”
“Because it’s stupid,” I said. “And I don’t want you to laugh at me.”
“I won’t laugh at you,” he said.
“You might,” I argued.
“I promise that I won’t,” he murmured. “Now tell me, Ivy. What are you thinking about?”
I stared into his eyes for a few moments before letting out a sigh. I couldn’t refuse him anything when he looked at me like that. And I knew it.
He knew it too.
“Fine,” I whispered. “If I tell you, will you let me go?”
He frowned but nodded. “Of course. Now tell me. Please?”
I let out another sigh. “Fine. I’ll tell you.”
He stared at me, waiting for me to continue.
I licked my lips. “I was thinking about… you. About you finding your mate.”
He frowned again, his gaze roaming over my face. “My mate?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Your mate. When you turn 25.”
He let go of my chin, frowning even deeper. “You’ve been thinking about my mate?”
I nodded again. “Yeah.”
“Why?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I just have. I mean, it’s kind of hard not to think about it.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “I guess it would be.”
We were silent for a few moments, and I finally looked away from him again.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “This was probably a weird thing to tell you. And—”
“No,” he interrupted. “It’s not weird. It’s just…”
I looked back at him. “Just what?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. Never mind.”
“Okay,” I said slowly.
We fell into silence again, and he continued to stare at me. It was unnerving to have him look at me like this, but at the same time, I liked it.
I liked the fact that he was giving me all of his attention, and it was nice not to have to fight for it.
Finally, after a few moments, he stood. He held his hand out to me. “Come on. Let’s go back to the party.”
I stared up at him, swallowing hard.
“I can’t,” I whispered.
He raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”
I looked away. “Because Lauren told me to leave.”
He growled, his hand dropping. “She did what?”
I looked back at him, frowning. “Why are you mad?”
“Why am I mad?” he growled. “She can’t fucking tell you to leave. This is my birthday, and she has no right to fucking tell you to leave.”
“It’s fine,” I said quickly, standing.
He shook his head, growling again. “No, it’s not fine. She doesn’t have any right to tell you to leave. I’ll go talk to her.”
I shook my head as he turned to walk away. “No, please don’t. It’s really not a big deal, Brandon. I don’t even want to be there anyway.”
He stopped, turning back to look at me. “Why not?” he asked quietly.
I shrugged. “Because I don’t like being around people.”
He tilted his head to the side, his eyes roaming over my face again. “But you’ll stay with me?”
“If you want me to,” I said.
He nodded, holding his hand out again. “Come on, then. Let’s go somewhere else.”
I took his hand, letting him pull me up from the ground. He didn’t let go of my hand, intertwining his fingers with mine.
“Where are we going?” I asked as he began to lead me through the trees.
“Somewhere that we can be alone,” he answered.
I raised my eyebrows as he led me through the trees. Alone? With him?
That wasn’t a good idea.
But it wasn’t like I was actually going to tell him no.
He finally stopped at the edge of the trees, turning to look down at me.
“What?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I just can’t believe you’re actually here with me.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “You never spend time with me. You always avoid me.”
I felt my cheeks heat up, and I looked down at the ground. He was right. I did always avoid him, but it wasn’t for the reasons he thought.
It was because he made me feel all of these things that I couldn’t feel. Not when he could never be mine.
“I know,” I whispered. “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to spend time with you.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” he muttered.
I looked back up at him again, frowning. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He shrugged again. “Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
“No,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “Tell me what you mean.”
“Fine,” he snapped. “If you want to know so badly, I’ll tell you. I thought you hated me. I’ve seen the way you look at me when I’m with other girls, and I know you hate it.”
“I don’t hate it,” I said quickly. Too quickly.
“Liar,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
I glared at him. “I do not hate you, and I don’t care when I see you with other girls.”
“Yes, you do,” he said. He let go of my hand and stepped closer to me, forcing me to tilt my head back to look up at him. “You care about me, Ivy. I can see it in your eyes when you look at me.”
My cheeks felt like they were on fire, and I couldn’t bring myself to admit the truth to him. Instead, I glared up at him. “I don’t care about you. At all.”
“Liar,” he whispered, leaning down so that his face was only a few inches away from mine.
My breath caught in my throat, and I found that I couldn’t look away from his gaze.