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I’d grabbed her hand impulsively after Murph and Patty had left us. Daphne was tall, and her hands were larger than most women’s, but her hand felt perfect in mine, as if they were meant to entwine together.
“Thank you for dinner,” she said shyly as we stood together outside her building.
“You’re welcome.”
I wasn’t usually at a loss for words, especially with women. Why this one, who’d so clearly captivated me?
Again, the desire to tread softly with her rose within me. I wasn’t sure why. What was so different about her? Was she truly hiding something, or was that just my own head playing tricks on me because she was so quiet?
And because I was so attracted to her?
“I’ll walk you to your room,” I said.
“Oh. Thanks.” She sounded slightly disappointed.
“Unless you want to do something else? The night is young.” I smiled.
She smiled back, her full pink lips bowing into the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen. Her whole face shone brightly under the lights outside her building.
“If you do,” she said.
“Come to think of it”—I squeezed her hand—“I’m not quite ready to say good night yet. I hate to copy Murph, but we could take a walk around campus. It’s big and it’ll take you a while to find everything on your own.”
“Or we could find a bench and sit under the stars,” she said.
I stopped my jaw from dropping onto the ground. This girl was an angel. An angel who’d dropped into my life just when I needed her most.
“I know the perfect place,” I said, still holding her hand. “Come on.”
We walked, mostly in silence, to the manmade lake at the far end of campus. It wasn’t actually part of campus. It was a public park, but the lake was kept stocked. During the day, kids sometimes brought their fishing poles, and walkers and runners did laps around the water.
At night, though, it was peaceful and serene. I led Daphne to a bench overlooking the moonbeams shining on the water.
“Wow.” She sat down. “It looks like stars fell onto the water. It’s beautiful.”
I looked at her. “Yeah. It is.”
As gorgeous as the moonlight on the lake was, it didn’t hold a candle to the woman sitting next to me. She was ravishing on the outside, but whatever she held inside put her outer beauty to shame.
She was something, Daphne Wade. I wanted to know everything about her, all the secrets inside her.
I wanted to…
I reached toward her and trailed my fingers over the graceful line of her jaw. Her lips shone in the soft light of the moon. Slightly parted, they glistened.
Glistened.
I wanted to…
I leaned toward her and brushed my mouth against hers in the softest kiss.
Just a kiss. A peck, really. No tongue or anything.
And I swore I felt more in that one kiss than I had in all the making out Wendy and I had done over the years.
I never thought I was a romantic, but it was a beautiful kiss.
A perfect kiss.
So perfect that it was enough.
For now.
Chapter Five
Daphne
My heart jumped, and the place between my legs fluttered.
I’d been kissed before, but never like this.
It was so simple. No one trying to probe my tonsils. Just a simple kiss.
A perfect kiss.
And I wanted more.
The few other times I’d been kissed, during my freshman and sophomore years in high school, the guys had scared the crap out of me with their aggression. Everyone wanted to shove his tongue in my mouth or grope my boobs.
I was honestly surprised Brad Steel didn’t try for more. He was over twenty-one, eons apart from the high school boys I’d been with.
But no, he seemed to sense that I wasn’t quite ready for anything more tonight, and he respected that.
Except that I did want more.
For the first time, I wanted more.
His gaze never left mine. “You’re beautiful.”
“So are you,” I replied.
He smiled. Perhaps he thought my words silly. But to me, he was beautiful. He looked like a pagan god in the moonlight. Perfect in looks with just the right touch of darkness.
I should know.
I was used to darkness.
I’d learned to live in it when I had to. It was just part of my life. Something that was a piece of me.
I had the feeling Brad Steel knew what darkness was as well.
My therapist had told me I’d overcome my fear of men. I had no basis for that fear, but so far, everyone who’d kissed me had been so pushy.
Didn’t want to go there right now.
All I knew was one thing.
Brad Steel didn’t scare me.
And now I wanted more. More than just the chaste kiss he’d given me. I wanted to feel his tongue trace my lips, enter my mouth, twirl with my own.
I wanted to feel his large and beautiful hands again on my face, on my neck, on my body, on my breasts.
