Page 26 of Wind Called

“So much for mySinging in the Rainmoment,” she said. “Do you mind if I get out of these wet clothes? Yours don’t seem to have suffered as badly, but — ”

“It’s fine,” he told her. “I can already tell the fire is helping, so I don’t mind waiting here for you.”

“Be just a sec,” she replied, then went on her tiptoes so she could press a kiss against his cheek. “Don’t go anywhere.”

Go anywhere? As far as he was concerned, he was just fine with standing here for as long as it took.

In that moment, he knew he would never willingly leave her.

She’d kissed Marc Trujillo. Kissed him in the rain like she was trying to re-create a scene fromThe Notebookor something.

And it had been wonderful. More than wonderful.

Sublime. Yes, that was it. Sublime…heavenly…any other adjective she could think of to describe something that hadn’t seemed to be quite of this earth. Sure, she’d kissed more than a couple of guys along the way, but she knew none of those kisses would remain with her until the day she died.

But that one with Marc….

Honestly, she hadn’t planned for any of this to happen. Sure, she knew she was attracted to him, but he’d mostly just seemed friendly despite a couple of glances that she might or might not have thought showed some interest. Nothing smoldering, though, that was for sure, and she figured he either didn’t feel about her the same way that she felt about him, or at least had decided they couldn’t have much of a future, not when they lived hundreds of miles apart and had very separate lives.

Well, the kiss they’d shared seemed to have blown that idea out of the water.

Acutely conscious that he was waiting for her back in the living room, she peeled herself out of her damp jeans and wet blouse, then realized her bra was soaked as well. As much as she would have liked to just put on a tank top and yoga pants and said the hell with it, she wasn’t sure what kind of message that would send.

Other than she’d be all too happy to bring him back to the bedroom and make sure he was properly warmed up.

But no, she wasn’t going to do something that crazy. Exactly once in her life, she’d had a one night stand, and even though it had been fun enough, she’d found herself wishing afterward that she hadn’t jumped straight into bed with the guy like that.

Especially since he’d pretty much ghosted her afterward. Not that she’d been expecting some kind of long-term relationship with him, but still, she thought that was kind of rude.

And sure, this wouldn’t be a one-night stand, not when she’d been hanging out with Marc for the past couple of days, but still, she thought it better to play it at least a little safe until she knew for sure where they stood.

So she put on a clean bra and a Sedona Jeep Adventures T-shirt and a baggy pair of cargo pants, and headed back to the living room. He might as well see her at her sloppiest and then decide whether he was really that attracted to her or not.

He smiled as she approached, which seemed to signal he didn’t much care what she wore.

“Getting dried out?” she asked, and he nodded.

“The fire is helping a lot. Still, I think the next time we want to stand in the rain, I should probably switch into some swim trunks or shorts or something first. Jeans like to stay wet.”

That they did. But because she really didn’t have anything he could change into — even the loose-fitting cargo pants she wore now probably wouldn’t get past his well-muscled thighs — she only said, “I can get you my blow dryer, if you think that’ll help.”

He chuckled. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m okay.”

Just as soon as he finished speaking, though, his expression abruptly sobered, and those deep, dark eyes met hers, steady and yet as hot as the flames dancing in the fireplace behind him.

It wasn’t the sort of look you’d get from someone who only wanted to be casual.

“And…areweokay?” Bellamy asked, figuring she might as well get it out in the open. She knew she’d never responded to a kiss the way she had to the one she’d shared with Marc a few minutes earlier, but even though his expression seemed to indicate otherwise, she still wanted to be sure this wasn’t some sort of off-hand encounter for him.

At once, he moved away from the fire and took her hands in his. It didn’t seem as if getting soaked in the rain had chilled him too badly, since his fingers were warm.

Reassuring.

“We’re okay,” he said quietly. “Or maybe…more than okay. From the first instant I saw you, I felt some kind of connection, but since I was here on what some people might have called official business, I wasn’t sure whether I should act on it.”

“But you did anyway,” she replied, and he let go of one of her hands so he could reach over and push a damp strand of hair away from her face.

“I did,” he echoed, and then smiled. “I suppose I could take the easy way out and say I was just caught up in the moment, but honestly, I would’ve been happy to kiss you in the parking lot of a gas station if that’s how things ended up.”

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