Read The Game of Love: (BWWM Romance) for Free Online

forearms.
     
    “ It is my lady, O, it is my love! O, that she knew she were! She speaks, yet she says nothing: what of that? Her eye discourses; I will answer it. I am too bold, ‘tis not to me she speaks: Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, having some business, do entreat her eyes .”
     
    Then his head fell briefly before he found her gaze again. “And please don’t ask me to recite any more than that. In fifteen years, those are still the only lines from Romeo and Juliet that I remember.”
    Sommer steadily held his gaze for a few seconds. Then she rolled her eyes and pulled away from his grasp.
    “And there it is,” Austin announced. “The famous Sommer Hayes eye roll. I was wondering when that would show up.”
    She walked until she’d put a few feet of distance between them. “Shakespeare? Really? You’re going to recite the Shakespeare that we learned in middle school to prove that you’re not a liar? How many times has that actually worked for you?”
    Confused, Austin moved towards her. “What are you talking about?”
    “No, Austin.” She pointed a finger towards him. “No.”
    She started towards her shoes on the rocks, but Austin grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards him. Sommer wished that just once he’d let her storm out the way she’d seen it in her head.
    “You’re going to have to stop doing that,” he warned. “I won’t let you run away. Trust me.”
    She stared at him in disbelief. “I know men like you.”
    Visibly intrigued, Austin folded his arms across his chest and gave her his full attention.
    “You say a few kind words to get all in a woman’s head, and then once things don’t go the way you expected, you toss her aside like trash.”
    Austin continued to stare at her and realized that even when she was angry, he still found her irresistibly cute as can be.
    “I haven’t said a thing about sex, if that’s what you’re referring to,” he replied. “And in all the years I’ve been dating, I’ve never invited a woman into my bed with the sole purpose of hurting her. I grew up with an older sister and would never want any man to do that to her, so if I don’t plan on pursuing a relationship past the physical with a woman, we both have to agree on it. Contractually.”
    Sommer silently continued to listen.
    “You were pr etty much my only crush, Sommer,” he went on. “I wasn’t lying to you when I said that I’d adored you from elementary school up until I left for college. You’re strong and selfless, especially when it comes to your family, and I admire that about you. I always have. And to be honest, I thought that I’d shaken those feelings for you years ago. But, when I saw you the other day at the Farmer’s Market, I realized that they were still there, and still as strong as though ten years hadn’t passed since we’d last seen each other.”
    Sommer’s eyes went to the water’s edge. “Sure didn’t look like it when you were with Jessica Costa.”
    Even though she’d murmured it, he’d heard, and realization hit him when he heard the hint of jealousy in her tone.
    “Every man falls for beauty at some point and time in his life,” he explained. “You’re lucky that you’ve got substance to go along with yours. It’s like having two beautiful red roses in your yard. The first few times you walk past them, they’re stunning, but after a while, they just look ordinary. That is; until you learn that one of the roses has magical healing powers in its petals. That there’s more to it than meets the eye. That extra layer is what makes it more special than all the others. That’s you.”
    Austin hoped that the words spewing forth from his lips made as much sense coming out of his mouth as they did in his heart.
    Sommer’s slight grin was confirmation that they did. “You’re slipping into poetry now?”
    He exaggeratedly threw up his hands. “I just can’t stop myself.”
    She laughed and , at that moment, her laughter was