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He had to keep his life predictable and orderly. Everything Lenora was not.

“The truth is,” he stated carefully, “I am not sure why the thought of you makes me panic.”

She closed her eyes and touched her fingers to her brow. “For what it’s worth, the thought of you sometimes makes me panic, too.”

His breath caught.

What good reason could either of them have to chase after something that unnerved them, something beyond their comprehension? Something that had the potential to truly hurt them in the end.

And yet, they’d been circling one another like ribbons around a maypole, growing tighter and more tangled with each pass. Perhaps the only way to free them both was to understand one another better.

“You want my friendship, you said?” he asked.

“Yes, your friendship.”

She dropped her hand, and her gaze moved to his mouth and lingered, overtly longing.

Friendship with Millie was easy because she had never looked at his lips with hunger in her eyes. And he never spun wild imaginings that included stripping Millie bare.

“You don’t want any more kisses? And you no longer wish to catch me in”—he cleared his throat—“my man-shift?”

What devilish, unnatural impulse had made him ask?

She lifted her hand and covered her forehead. Her blush reached her forearms, prickling over her skin as gooseflesh.

“I suppose it was too much to hope you’d forgotten about my mangling the name of your...”

“Smalls.” God in heaven. “And I don’t expect I will forget.”

Her whimper sent a shard through his heart. He shouldn’t have used feelings she barely understood against her.

He’d been wrong to try.

“I’m teasing you, Lenora,” he conceded.

“You are?” Her eyes flew open. “I see.”

She did?

“Friends tease one another, don’t they?” she asked.

He swallowed roughly. Then he nodded.

She worried her lip. Then, she smiled. “Perhaps, since I have already done the, ah, two things you mentioned, I won’t feel the need to try them again.”

“Minx,” he accused... but softly. Tenderly.

Oh, how little she knew. Kisses, especially ones that burst in your body like a firework, invariably led to more kisses. Nudity, which she had clearly appreciated, invariably led to...

Well, never mind.

Besides, he knew she’d been teasing him, too. Slowly, he returned her smile. He couldn’t help but find her reply humorous. Unintentionally, he started a new list.

The real Lenora has a sense of humor.

“You’ll be my death,” he said.

She flinched and averted her gaze. “That—that’s not what I want at all.”