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He looked at her with those bedroom eyes. “A hell of a lot closer than I was just a few days ago.”
“So, you wouldn’t mind if she sent you a letter or if you catch a glimpse of her at the life celebration?” It was definitely a question, and she had a reason for it. If the indifference still had roots in bitter anger, then she would have that chat with Colleen about staying out of Egan’s path.
His look went level again. “I wouldn’t go that far. Yeah, I’d still mind, but I don’t think it’d have the sting it once did. About time,” he added in a mutter.
She nearly said he deserved to hang on to his crap feelings for Colleen for the rest of his life. But she knew firsthand that wasn’t the way to go. It’d be like eating hourly servings of Yummy Tummy Balls. Perhaps savory and possibly even yummy, but it’d get old fast. Too bad she couldn’t quite get her mind wrapped around that because she was still feeling a whole boatload of anger at Jack. Not just about the affair but because he’d died before she could confront him face-to-face.
“You’re smiling,” she said at the same moment he said, “You’re frowning.”
There it was. Their current bottom line when it came to their tangled wad of emotions. But Alana didn’t want to be the frowner here. She wanted to have something lift her spirits, to make her think of the here and now instead of the past.
Here and now got some fuel when she looked at Egan again.
Egan, with his shirt still unbuttoned. Egan, with his damp face and chest. Egan, looking at her as if he were thinking about a new bottom line for them.
Perhaps one that involved a kiss.
Egan didn’t seem to have another lightbulb moment, but he was staring at her, maybe thinking the same thing. Maybe.
“How much of a mistake do you think it would be?” she muttered, hoping he could fill in theitblank with a kiss.
His smile faded but not in a bad kind of way. No scowl or grimace. Just the intensity of a man who was battling lust. Oh, yeah. The lust was definitely there. She might have been out of the relationship game for a while, but she could still detect heat when it was aimed at her.
“A big mistake,” he assured her.
So, he’d not only filled in the blanks but the likely outcome as well. That’s why it surprised her when he took a step toward her while he kept his gaze locked with hers.
Alana knew that outcome, too, but she still took a step toward him, itching to get her mouth on his and her hands on that incredible bare chest.
He moved, she moved, as if being manipulated by an unseen force. In this case, the force was plain old lust mixed with plain old need. Which suddenly didn’t seem plain at all because it involved Egan.
They finally stopped just inches away from each other, and his gaze dropped to her mouth. Hers went to his. And she was within one hot breath of moving in to take that kiss.
But a sound stopped her.
A sort of whirring noise, followed by a blur of motion. Not coming from around them but above. Their heads whipped up, spearing the blur of motion coming from a rope zooming down from the hayloft. The motion quickly came into focus, and she saw the person wearing a familiar uniform.
The woman wearing it was familiar, too.
It was Remi, and she had on her Combat Rescue Officer’s uniform. Familiar to Alana since Jack had worn a very similar version of it when he’d been on duty.
Remi grinned as she swung down superhero style from the rope and gave them both a long once-over. “My, my, my,” she said. “And what exactly am I interrupting here?”
CHAPTER NINE
EGANEXPERIENCEDAquick hit of emotions. Joy at seeing his sister. Relief that she was home in one piece. And annoyance at her for her untimely arrival since it had put a halt to him kissing Alana.
Along with those three things, there was also some consolation since the interruption stopped him from doing something stupid. Then again, he was 100 percent certain that he would have gotten a lot of pleasure from the stupidity.
So, yeah, that mix of emotions was a soupy mess.
Remi’s grin toned down some of the annoyance both at her and himself. So did the hard hug she gave him when she pulled him into her arms.
“Sorry, but I couldn’t resist a grand entrance,” she said, aiming the apology at both of them. “I rarely get to put that part of my training to use so when the opportunity arose, I went with it.”
With her hands now locked on his forearms, his sister gave him a long look, maybe gauging to see what kind of toll these last eleven days had taken on him. There was a toll all right, a big-assed one, but he was hoping he was doing a big brother job of covering it up. Especially since he didn’t want Remi taking any worry about him back to the job.
Too late, though.
