Anyone but Alex (The English Brothers Book 3) by Katy Regnery Page B

.”
    He tensed, looking away. “I can’t change my history, Jess.”
    “Alex, I was just joking.”
    He shook his head. “I know you were, but it’s still true. A lot of what they say about me is true.”
    She reached across the table and covered his hand with hers, watching his face as he flipped his hand so that they were palm to palm. His thumb and fingers curled over the back of her hand, clasping it gently, adjusting and readjusting his fingers until every part of her skin was flush with his.
    When he finally looked up at he r, he looked so lost that she had no choice but to grin back. “I told you that you couldn’t handle me.”
    He didn’t smile back. “Doesn’t it bother you?”
    “That you’ve been with a lot of women?”
    He nodded.
    It did bother her, of course, and when they finally spent the night together, it would bother her in myriad other ways she’d hardly dared to explore yet. But what Jess knew, and Alex didn’t seem to understand, was that her heart had already chosen him long, long ago. It didn’t matter what had happened in his past as long as he chose her to be his immediate future.
    “I’m not e xactly a virgin, Alex.”
    “What does that mean?” he asked, his fingers tensing around hers as his face hardened a little.
    “It means I’m twenty-three years old. I’m not one for casual flings, but I’ve had boyfriends and lovers.”
    He winced, taking a deep breath. “It makes zero sense that I hate knowing that.”
    She ignored the pleasure she felt from his comment and finished what she wanted to say. “Our histories are irrelevant to now, to here, to this conversation. How many people we’ve slept with before today really doesn’t matter. We can’t change it, and I don’t know about you, but I really wouldn’t want to. The people I’ve known—and loved—made me who I am today. So, no, it doesn’t matter to me that you’ve had a lot of partners, not in any meaningful way.”
    “ How can that be true?” he asked as his thumb stroked the pad of her thumb distractedly.
    “ Because our experiences help to shape who we are, but they don’t define us.”
    “I doubt your brothers would agree.”
    She drew her hand away from his and watched as his face betrayed how much he disliked losing that connection with her. “Maybe it’s just best for me to lay my cards on the table, Alex.”
    “Jess —”
    “ No. Just listen. Here it is… I’m here for five weeks. That’s it. Five weeks. And then I go home to my museum and my modern art and my friends and my travel and my life. But while I’m here, I want to be with you. N-not just as your friend, but if that’s all you can offer, I’ll take it.” She shrugged, hoping she appeared more collected and cool than she felt on the inside, which was a tangle of nerves, begging every force in the universe for Alex not to turn her away.
    His eyes were brilliant blue, trained on hers like he couldn’t look away from her if he tried, so she continued in an uncharacteristically nervous rush.
    “ I don’t care what my brothers think. And I don’t care what your brothers think. I don’t care that you’ve slept with a lot of people. All I care about is not wasting this chance to spend time together, to pick up the thread from our childhood and see what happens next.”
    She calmed the trembling of her hand before raising her glass to her lips and taking a long sip of beer. He watched her in silence, his eyes deep and serious.
    When she replaced her glass and he still hadn’t spoken, she looked at her lap, starting to feel ridiculous. “If that isn’t what you want, then let’s just drink our beer and eat our bangers and say goodbye…”
    She was running out of courage. He hadn’t given anything away, and she’d laid her heart bare to him. Taking a deep breath, she started to wonder if she’d gravely misjudged this situation, and if he somehow still saw her as the child who used to follow him around during flashlight