Page 126 of All I Want for Christmas

He smirked, his eyes on the road but knowing exactly the effect he had on her.

‘There’s something I want to know,’ she said, studying his jawline.

‘Okay.’

‘Did you recognize me, the night we met? Did you know we’d matched?’

He smiled, bemused. ‘Not only did I recognize you, I recognized you long before you recognized me.’

‘No you didn’t!’

‘I saw you when you arrived. You were coming down the steps and I started making a beeline for you.’

‘You recognized me straight away?’

‘No. At that point I just wanted you—’

Darcy swallowed at his candour.

‘But then you went over to Otto’s group; I saw you being introduced to Helle and I realized, from all the interest in you, that you must be the specialist researcher they were bringing in. It felt like an unfortunate complication.’

‘That’s why you hung back?’

‘Yes.’

‘But you kept staring at me.’

‘No law against that,’ he shrugged, unapologetic. ‘I was on my way out,tryingto resist temptation, when I checked my messages and saw that the hot girl I’d matched with, who was turning down my kind offer of a drink, was right in front of me. There’s only so much a man can take.’

‘So you decided to wait and try your luck again?’

‘Well, you’d turned me down on the grounds you had plans. Given I was at those plans, I figured I now had a good shot.’ He winked at her. His logic was impeccable.

‘But if you knew we were going to be working together...?’

‘There’s always an exception to the rule, Darcy.’ His hand squeezed her leg. ‘And besides, it wasn’t like we were going to be in the same office. As it was, I had to manufacture ways to see you.’

‘Like making me work at your house?’ she grinned, feeling vindicated. ‘I knew it!’

He grinned back. ‘I liked having you around.’

‘You make me sound like a pet.’

‘You were even cuter than that. Soprincipled. I could barely get you past the door,’ he chuckled.

‘Yeah, well – it was just great being introduced to all your girlfriends.’

‘Not my girlfriends,’ he said with a simple shake of his head. ‘They only ever stayed the night. You’re the only one I ever wanted to stay for the day.’

‘Charmer.’ She reached out and stroked his cheek again; it was impossible to stop touching him. ‘So, if you were looking for reasons to see me, why did you come to the gallery the day after we met to “establish boundaries”?’

‘To see you again.’

‘You dumped me – in order to see me again?’

‘Technically I couldn’t dump you when we weren’t together – but yes. And also because I was angry with you.’

Her eyes narrowed gleefully. ‘Because I had a date?’

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