Page 46 of Passion’s Song

“It doesn’t have to,” she said. “Maybe there’s a way to fit your vision in with what others in the neighborhood are doing. You can still build it, but change the concept. Make it affordable, make the retail shops something that the people in this neighborhood can use, and not something that will push them out.”

Damien ran a hand down his face. “That’s something to think about,” he said. “It would provide jobs and housing, and it can still have the aesthetics I’m hoping for.” He hunched his shoulders. “Who knows, this may work.”

Damien realized that having her here right now was the perfect opportunity to finally bring up another thing that had been on his mind lately.

“Not to change the subject,” he said, even though that’s exactly what he intended. “But are we going to discuss what Jason said at the christening party, or am I supposed to just pretend I never heard it?”

“I choose option B.”

“I don’t,” he replied, grinning at her quick comeback.

“Damn that Jason.” April pulled her hands out of his grip and splayed them wide on top of the table, stretching them, then fisting them in a clear effort to get a grip on her frustration. “If he were not a new father, I swear I’d kill him.”

Damien laughed. “Something tells me your sister-in-law would be upset if you made her a widow.”

“She’d get over it,” April said.

Damien drew a single finger across her soft skin. “Was there any truth to what he said?”

April sat back in her chair. She heaved an annoyed sigh, then looked at him with stark honesty. “What do you want me to say, Damien? That I had a crush on you? Is that what you want to hear?”

“I know you had a crush on me,” he said. Her eyes widened with surprise. Damien shrugged. “Just because I was slow in English doesn’t mean I was stupid. And, not to come across as cocky, but there were a few girls with crushes on me back then.”

“Yes, that sounds cocky,” April said.

He laughed, but then he grew more thoughtful. “I figured it was just a passing thing when it came to you, but based on what Jason said at the christening, yours was more than just your run-of-the-mill high school crush.”

April groaned. “I really don’t want to talk about this.”

“You made me talk about Kurt’s incident. It’s payback time.”

She held her hands out. “Yes, fine. I had a huge crush on you. I helped you to pass English and you took pity on me and invited me to the prom. The end.”

“Is that what you think, April? That I asked you to prom out of pity?”

“Well, didn’t you?”

His mouth tipped up in a smile. “No.” Damien shook his head. He folded his arms on the table and leaned forward. “I didn’t ask you out of pity. I asked you to prom because there was no one else I wanted to go with more than you.”

Once again, April’s eyes grew wide with disbelief, but then they dimmed.

“There’s no reason for you to lie about this after all these years,” she said.

“Exactly,” he replied. “So why would I?”

He leaned in even closer, caught her chin between his fingers and tugged ever so gently. His lips were only centimeters from hers when he spoke.

“If I’d known that your feelings for me were serious, I would have handled things very differently back in high school.”

Damien’s heart began to beat triple time as his mouth descended on hers. His muscles tensed with arousal at the first brush of his lips against her sweetness. He pressed his closed mouth to her lips several times before his tongue began to trace along the seam.

Applying the barest hint of pressure, Damien pushed his way inside with amazing ease. The sweetest desire flooded his bloodstream at his first taste of April. He sought the crevices of her, his tongue roaming around, sampling. Learning.

Ignoring the fact that they were in public, he slowly and methodically explored her mouth. He’d waited much too long to do this, and he wasn’t inclined to bring it to a close anytime soon.

But apparently April had other plans. She pressed a hand to his chest and pushed.

When she looked over at him, her eyes were wide with shock.