Free His Allure, Her Passion by Juliana Haygert Page B

“Why?”
    The crowd going up and down pressed her against him, and he grasped her elbows.
    “I’m tired. And I don’t think I’ll get more than this.” She brandished the card in the little space between them. “I just want to go home, so, if you’ll excuse me.”
    Hayley tried going around Dylan, but the crowd pushed her against him again and, on the same step, he ended up with his back to the wall and Hayley pressed against his body.
    She needed to get away from him, his sweet scent, his soft touch, and his intoxicating stare.
    He held on to her. “You’re not going home alone. I brought you. I’ll take you home.”
    “But you love parties. Stay, have fun.” Her hands on his upper arms, she pushed away from him. “We’ll see each other at the Valentine’s Day ball.”
    His forehead creased. “Stop being so stubborn.”
    “I’m a grown-up. I can be stubborn if I want to.”
    Still holding her elbows, Dylan twisted her to the stairs and gently pushed her down one step. He positioned himself behind her, one of his hands on her waist. “If you want to go, then we’ll go together.”

 
     
    Chapter Twelve
     
     
    Dylan tried thinking of a subject to initiate a conversation with Hayley, but nothing seemed adequate. He peeked at her as she stared out the window, appearing not interested in talking at all.
    Or so he thought.
    “Patrick proposed to me,” she finally said.
    The car jerked to the side with his momentary shock. Thank God the streets were almost quiet in the middle of the night.
    Dylan cleared his throat. “What happened?”
    “As I’m not engaged, it’s obvious I said no.”
    “Why?” He kept glancing at her, wishing he could stop the car and just look at her, read her expression.
    She didn’t answer. Not for a few minutes. Dylan was going insane when she said, “I didn’t love him. Never did. It was comfortable being with him, but there was no passion. Not from my side, anyway.”
    “You stayed with him for over a year when you didn’t love him? I don’t understand.”
    “Look who’s talking.” She flashed a brief smile before becoming serious again. “I don’t understand either. But when he proposed, I realized I couldn’t do that to him, keep him with me when my feelings didn’t match his. So I broke up with him.” She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “But he never gave up. He said I just needed time to sort things out, that I would miss him and go back to him. Poor guy. I never missed him.”
    They were only a few blocks from her building, and he wished he could take a detour, a long detour, to talk to her a little more before dropping her off.
    Yet, he didn’t know what to say to her, what to talk about. Opportunity lost, he parked his car in front of her building. For a moment, neither of them moved.
    “Thank you,” she whispered, “for taking me to the party and for taking me out of there.” She smiled at him, a sad smile that touched him.
    “No problem.”
    Their eyes locked, the intensity of her green gaze sending shivers down his back. Damn, what was happening here?
    Before he could find out, Hayley opened the door. “Good night.” She stepped out and ran to her building.
    “Good night,” Dylan whispered to himself as he watched Hayley disappear through the front door.
    Of course he knew what was happening. The way her heavy scent inside his car teased him was proof of how hard he was falling for her. Really falling for her. For the first time, he wanted more than just kisses and sex. Kissing her had been amazing, the memory of how her skin felt against his made his breathing grow shallow even now. But there was more to it. He liked her company, her conversations, her voice, her stare. And it all scared the hell out of him.
    Damn, it was Hayley! His only true friend, or so she was before that incident during Christmas. He had to fix their friendship. He couldn’t risk it by chasing after her. What if she rejected him? She had all the right