Page 102 of Kiss and Tell

“Uh— Both?” he asked with a quizzical expression.

I sighed softly and waved for him to sit on the sofa. I took a seat next to him on the other side and folded my hands in my lap.

“I wanted to apologize,” he started. “When Jessie started guessing, I should have shut down the conversation and not humored her. The thing is, she saw how much I’d changed recently. She saw how happy I was.” Connor dipped his head, lowered his eyes to the floor. “A part of me wanted her to know. I wanted her to know it was you who’d made me so happy.”

I placed a hand on his knee. He looked up at me, surprised.

“I understand,” I said. “It’s not like I wanted to keep us a secret. I wanted to shout from the rooftops about you. But I knew it would only jeopardize my career.”

“I know how important it is to you,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t respect that. It’s just, this whole thing with you being so obsessed over your job…” His lips curved down into a frown. “I started feeling like you were choosing work over me. And that hurt.”

“I know,” I said.

“You don’t know.” He shook his head. “You can’t know. I never told you, but—” He paused, looking exhausted. “When I left the music industry, I didn’t just leave behind a career. I lost something more important than that.”

“Your best friend,” I said softly.

Connor’s head snapped up. “What?”

“You left the industry, but Mason didn’t.” I used the same words Jessie had told me. “He stopped talking to you. He was busy managing other acts. He didn’t need you anymore so he dropped you.”

Connor’s eyes went wide as he swallowed visibly.

“How do you know all that?” he asked.

“I read between the lines.”

Connor’s lips pressed together, a shadow falling over his eyes.

“Leaving the industry was one thing,” he said. “But not having my best friend be there for me…”

I squeezed his knee, staying silent, waiting for him to continue.

“He couldn’t use me to further his career anymore,” Connor said. “He just ditched me, like I was useless to him. That’s why it hurt so bad.” He put a hand over mine where it rested on his knee. “When I thought you were choosing your career over me, I felt like it was happening all over again.”

“I’m so sorry, Connor.” I shifted on the sofa until I was pressed up against him. I took both his hands in mine. “I never meant to make you feel that way. You were so patient with me. So understanding. I know asking you to keep our relationship a secret was unfair of me.”

“And it was unfair of me to expect you to choose me over your career,” he replied.

“You weren’t asking me to do anything,” I said. “It was all me. It was about my ambition along with my insecurities.”

Connor’s thumb rubbed back and forth along the skin of my inner wrist.

“I’ll go to your office,” he said. “I’ll talk to your boss. I’ll tell them nothing happened between us. I’ll deny everything and make those rumors go away.”

The slightest brush of skin to skin, even something as chaste as his thumb against my wrist was enough to make heat flare up between my legs.

I took his hand and put it to my cheek, nuzzling into his palm.

“No,” I said. “I don’t want to deny anything. Yes, my job is important to me, but so are you.”

We stared at one other, gazing into each other’s eyes. The air sparked between us like electricity, making the hairs on my arms stand up.

With my face cupped in his hand, Connor ran his thumb along my bottom lip. I parted them unconsciously, wetting them, my tongue glancing off his rough, callused skin.

Connor’s pupils blew wide open, his breathing going heavy. He took the tip of my chin and tipped my head up and to the side, the perfect angle for a kiss.

But he didn’t kiss me. He trailed his lips along my cheek, down my jaw, along my throat, leaving a hot, blazing trail. Shivers ran up my spine. Connor’s every touch set my body on fire.