My Only Exception Read Online Free PDF Page B

turned around and waited for him to catch up to me.
    He gave me a grin, showing his perfect set of even white teeth. He’d obviously had a killer orthodontist growing up. I shuddered just remembering the almost four years I’d had to wear my braces.
    “Walk you out?” he asked.
    I shrugged a shoulder. “Sure.”
    From the corner of my eye, I could see one of the other waitresses, and one of Braden’s former flings, Kylie, shooting daggers at me.
    Geez, if looks could kill, I’d most definitely be dead.
     She probably thought I was Braden’s latest hookup. I mentally shook my head. That was one thing I was determined to avoid. And minus the drunken incident the other night, I’d done a pretty good job of avoiding it.
    My emotions would get entirely too involved where Braden was concerned. It would most certainly end with me getting my heart trampled on... I was sure of it.
    Braden opened the door for me and I stepped out into the balmy night air. As usual, the slight breeze did little to ease the humid Carolina air. As we headed to our cars, I noticed Braden sneaking peaks at me. Finally I stopped, turning to him and putting a hand on my hip.
    “Is there some reason you keep looking at me?” I asked.
    Braden tilted his head to the side, letting his eyes rake over my face. Then he smiled. “Yeah, you have some marinara sauce on your face.” He knew I had an unreasonable fear of marinara sauce.
    I narrowed my eyes at him. “No I don’t. I checked the mirror in the break room before I left.”
    Braden reached over, gently pushing back the strands of hair that had escaped my ponytail. “How can I help looking at you when I’m walking next to the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen?”
    And surprise of all surprises, he looked dead serious when he said it. His green eyes had snagged mine and the look in them almost had me believing every word.
    I let out a slow breath. “Braden.” I’d meant to say his name in warning, but damn if it didn’t come out sounding like I was begging for something. And I couldn’t even blame it on alcohol.
    His eyes darkened and he used a hand to tilt my chin up, looking deep into my eyes. “I want you, Presley. I have from the moment I laid eyes on you.”
    Deep down, I really wanted to believe that.
    I watched as his lips descended on mine, closing my eyes just as our mouths brushed.
    And then it hit me. What the hell was I doing? Did I have absolutely no self-restraint?
    Apparently, with him I didn’t. I was usually an expert at maintaining an emotional distance. And yet I was letting emotions and hormones take over every time he was near me. I had strict rules for myself on relationships.
    And Braden Worthington was quickly becoming my exception to the rule.
    I pulled away abruptly, turning with every plan of making a beeline for my car. “See ya, Braden,” I called back. I was stopped short when he caught hold of my hand. I turned slowly around to meet his eyes.
    Braden was looking at me intently, almost reverently. “That song was for you, you know.”
    I shook my head slightly in confusion, totally caught off guard and still reeling from our almost first sober kiss.
    “The song I sang at the concert. ‘Desperate for You.’ I wrote that about you.”
    My eyes widened, my lips parting in shock. Me? Braden Worthington had written a song about me? Wow.
    I had known Braden long enough to know when he was flirting with a girl, and the look on his face was dead serious: not flirtatious, but honest, open, and vulnerable.  And it blew my mind. “Desperate for You” had been about a girl he was in love with, one that he considered the only person meant for him, but who wouldn’t give him the time of day. It had broken my heart listening to it, and to know that I was the one that had provoked such raw emotions in him.... I just didn’t have the words.
    And there was no way I could wrap my head around that the fact that he harbored that kind of emotion for me. I was scared