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“Are you sure?”
“Positive.” I drop my head to her shoulder, needing a moment to catch my breath and process these…these strange feelings coursing through me.
Claire Daniels is the only woman in this town who gets my blood pumping. I’ve been lusting after her since the fifth grade when she showed up at the rock quarry in a purple bikini. Until tonight, I thought she looked at me as nothing but a distant friend, which worked perfectly, because if that’s all I was to her, there was no reason to tell her my secret, a secret I’ve carried around for thirteen years. But clearly, I was wrong. It’s one thing to watch Claire from afar, but it’s entirely different having her in my arms and knowing that the giant secret I’ve kept for so long could ruin us before we’ve even started.
I want to blurt it out right now just so we can move forward without anything between us, but I’m not ready for that—and I’m not sure Claire is ready for that. I’m not even sure there’d be anything left between us after I spoke. But my only other option is to walk away now, and after getting a taste of her, I’m not sure that’s an option.
You have to, I remind myself. Something between Claire and me could never work. There are too many things working against us, too much history between us—history she doesn’t even know about.
But I’m a selfish bastard, and even though I know I should climb in my truck and never look back, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to do.
When I look up, she smiles. Her green eyes are shining with a brightness I haven’t seen in far too long, and I’ll be damned if that doesn’t make me feel ten feet tall.
“Hi,” she says.
“Hi.”
“We were talking about that kiss,” she adds, softly.
“Best damn kiss I’ve ever had.”
Claire’s cheeks turn pink. She rests her forehead to my chest and laughs.
“Most women don’t laugh when I compliment them.”
My words only make her laugh harder, and after a couple of seconds I find myself laughing along with her.
“Why are you laughing?” I ask.
She looks up, her eyes wet with tears. I sweep a stray hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear.
“Because I finally get you in my arms, and I knee you in the balls. Only I would do something like that.”
The smile falls from my face. This is another reason I find Claire so incredibly attractive. She’s honest to a fault. But that’s not what has all coherent thought flying from my brain—it’s the other thing. The really important and shocking thing.
“Finally?”
She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth and watches me. Lifting my hand, I tug on her chin until her lip pops free.
“I sort of, maybe have a thing for you,” she whispers.
“I know.”
“You do?”
“Figured it out when you attacked my mouth.”
“What?” Her jaw drops, and when I smile, she punches me in the shoulder. “You attacked my mouth first, mister.”
Wrapping my fingers around her wrist, I hold her in place. I shouldn’t tell her I feel the same way. It’ll only make what I have to do that much harder, but I’ll be damned if I let her share her feelings and walk away thinking I don’t feel the same.
“You’re damn right I did, because I sort of, maybe have a thing for you too.”
Claire’s lips fall open. “You do?”
I laugh. “Why do you find that so hard to believe? You’re a beautiful woman, Claire. You’re smart, funny—”
“Old,” she inserts.
