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She slowly turned to him. He hadn’t even come up the steps to the porch. Instead, he stood back. He knew if he got too close, he would want to pull her into his arms and kiss her. “I meant everything I said about my feelings for you. I love you and have from the moment we were introduced. If you change your mind about me, about us, then you know how to reach me.”
He watched her go inside and closed the door. He didn’t move off the steps to return to his car until she had flicked the curtain.
Seventeen
Nadia jumped when Rissa snapped her fingers in front of Nadia’s face. She hadn’t known her best friend had even moved out of the chair. Nadia frowned. “What did you do that for?”
Rissa returned to her chair in front of Nadia’s desk. “To get your attention. You’ve been zoning out on me since I got here. Do you want to talk about it?”
She was about to tell Rissa that no, she didn’t want to talk about it. Rissa had been trying to get information out of Nadia since the moment she’d arrived. However, the teasing glint in Rissa’s eyes had been replaced with concern. She heard it in her friend’s voice and saw it in her face.
Other than her sisters, Rissa knew Nadia better than anyone. If she could feel Nadia was out of sorts, then her worry was justified. Nadia was not one to let a man get under her skin. Yet Jaxon had done so.
“Jaxon and I argued.”
Rissa nodded her head as if not surprised. “The two of you have been at odds since he told you he wanted to marry you. I thought you guys had declared a truce or something since you slept with him Friday night.”
“It’s gotten worse.”
Rissa lifted a brow. “How?”
“Now he thinks he’s in love with me.”
Rissa stared at her for a moment and then asked, “He actually told you that?”
“Yes. It was when we’d gone riding at the Ellerey Ranch on Saturday. We were at the lake letting our horses rest and he said he loved me. He also said he felt entitled to me because he was the first guy I slept with.”
Rissa frowned. “Did he really say that?”
“No, but that’s the way he acted.”
“Or is that the way you took it, Nadia? I know you. And the one thing I do know is you have a tendency to make a mountain out of a molehill.”
When Nadia didn’t say anything, Rissa leaned back in her chair and studied her. “Why do I have the feeling you aren’t telling me everything?”
Probably because she wasn’t, Nadia thought. She hadn’t told Rissa of her unusual feeling of jealousy when she’d seen a picture of Jaxon’s administrative assistant on his website and how relieved she was when he’d said the beautiful woman was getting married. Nor had she told her how she’d deliberately gone horseback riding with him just so Clementine Ellerey wouldn’t get her clutches in him.
“I’m getting jealous where Jaxon is concerned.”
Rissa raised a brow. “Jealous in what way?”
She then told Rissa of the two situations and when a smile spread across Rissa’s lips, she asked, “Why are you smiling?”
“Because you’re not a woman who makes a habit of getting jealous over a man. That could only mean one thing.”
“What?”
“You care for Jaxon Ravnel more than you’re admitting to me and, more importantly, to yourself.”
“I don’t want a man in my life. Especially not him.”
“Why not him?” Rissa asked with a sheen of curiosity in her eyes.
Nadia inhaled deeply as she struggled to say the words to make Rissa understand. “Because Jaxon is too good to be true. Everybody likes him. I told you how he exposed that man who was deceiving the Outlaws. He didn’t have to do that, but he did. Now the Westmorelands and Outlaws think he’s a swell guy. Even all the women in the family like him.”
“All the women but you.” Rissa hadn’t stated it as a question.
“I don’t dislike him.”
