“I’m not afraid of the dark,” she said in a teasing tone.
“Maybe you should be.”
Since she lived in New York City, her attitude wasn’t cavalier. She’d taken a self-defense course. Yet as she pointed out where she’d parked, she wasn’t concerned about her safety as much as she was concerned about her attraction to Peter Clark.
Opening her purse, she took out her keys. After she pressed the remote control button, the car beeped. She stood at the driver’s door not knowing exactly what to say to Peter. It had been an unusual evening.
She settled on, “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow morning. I worry about Ryan driving if this is more than tension headaches. I told him I’d meet him outside the Double Crown and follow him to your place.”
“Did Ryan tell you I’d like to leave by 6:30 a.m.?”
“Yes, he did.”
“Will your brother question where you’re going?”
“With me living at the pool house, we hardly notice each other’s comings and goings. Miles doesn’t watch over me as closely as Clyde does. He won’t miss me.”
The parking lot lights cast a combination of glow and shadows. Peter’s gaze held hers. She couldn’t seem to look away and neither could he. The awareness between them had her senses raised to a fever pitch.
When Peter bent toward her, she was afraid to breathe. She was afraid she’d break the spell. She was afraid his pager might interrupt or else he’d change his mind. In spite of warning bells clanging in her head, she wanted to feel his lips on hers. She wanted to taste him. She wanted to find out if the excitement between them was real.
At the moment his lips touched hers, she knew it was. One of his strong arms went around her and she lifted her lips into the kiss, telling him she wasn’t going to pull away. The sexual tension that had been humming between them since they’d met had needed an outlet, but the kiss was much more than that.
Heat flashed through Violet, making even her fingertips tingle. Coherent thoughts vanished as her body simply responded to Peter’s. His tongue was making her crazy with need. When her arms went around his neck, she pressed into him, and his taut body told her he was as aroused as she was. This kiss was so different from the inexpert kisses of her teenage years, so different from awkward first-date kisses, so different from the maybe-I’ll-try-this-again kisses that had left her cold. She was going up in flames with Peter and she wondered where they could possibly go from here.
She never got the chance to find out. Suddenly the kiss ended as he dropped his arms and stepped away. When she glanced up at him, she was still trembling all over, but he looked as composed as he had all night.
He said, “That was probably not one of the more intelligent things I’ve ever done.”
Her pride kept her from asking why, from showing him the effect he’d had on her. Her pride was something she could hold on to, wrap around herself and rely on.
“It was just a kiss,” she said lightly as if it hadn’t mattered at all.
When he cocked his head, she felt as if he were trying to see right through her, yet she knew he couldn’t. She’d been building walls around herself all her life—since she’d been fifteen, pregnant and more alone than she’d ever felt in her entire existence. There was no way Peter could see into her heart, mind or head.
Opening the car door, she quickly slid inside and closed it. She did not roll her window down to say a final goodbye. Rather she started the engine, shifted the car into gear and backed up. She didn’t even glance in her rearview mirror as she drove away.
Tomorrow morning, when she saw Peter again, she’d be prepared. They’d consult professionally about Ryan, then go their separate ways. End of story.
But her lips still felt as if they were on fire from his kiss, and her insides still quivered. When she felt tears come to her eyes, she took a deep breath and banished them. She was Violet Fortune, strong and independent. She didn’t need a man.
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