Page 145 of Ace My Heart

“Why do you fight the way you feel about me?” He sounded amused.

My emotions overflowed. I leapt up from the love seat and turned to face him, not caring about the tear-tracks on my cheeks. I tried to focus on his face, not his body, clad only in boxer shorts.

“Why do I fight it? What, does it annoy you when a woman doesn’t swoon at the sight of you? Does it make you feel less of a man if you can’t make a woman’s heart melt? I can’t afford to make myself that vulnerable around you, Joel! It’s not fair that you can steal my heart! I don’t want you to have it!” I snapped my mouth shut.

Oh God, had I just, in a weird, roundabout way, told Joel I loved him?

Joel was smirking now. That just made me even angrier, and I screwed up my face to try and keep the tears from getting worse, wiping hurriedly at the fresh ones that were rolling down my cheeks.

“I stole your heart?” he asked, his mouth hitching up even further into that cheeky grin that I would have said annoyed the living daylights out of me, if I wasn’t totally in love with it. With the man it belonged to.

“You know you did – you’ve been trying to for months now! I hope you’re happy – it’s yours! You’ll probably just break it anyway. I’m soangryat myself for letting this happen!”

I stopped and stared at him. He waslaughingat me! I couldn’t believe it. I felt my face burning red hot and I snapped.

I lunged at him, pummelling at his torso with all the strength I could muster in my right arm. I lashed out again and again, my fist making contact with his ribs, his stomach.

Joel just stood there and took it like I was tickling him with a feather duster. He watched me with that ridiculous grin on his face.

I slowed down my attack and then stopped altogether, dropping my face into my good hand. I didn’t want him to look at me. Could I have made any more of a mess of this?

“I didn’t steal your heart.” Joel spoke with such quiet assurance that I almost looked up into his face, but at the last minute remembered how blotchy and red I would be. I kept my face hidden in my hand.

“Yes, you did!” I snapped childishly, my words muffled because my fingers were over my mouth.

“I didn’t steal it, Stinky. I traded it. Yours for mine.”

I froze. I couldn’t look up at him. I hadn’t heard right. I was going insane. I was starting to hear voices.

Cool hands pried my fingers away from my cheeks and tilted my chin until my face was pointing directly at his. I didn’t look up into his eyes. Instead, I pouted stubbornly.

“That’s a pretty fair trade, don’t you think, Mel?” Joel asked in that softly spoken tone that always made me weak at the knees.

“Don’t lie to me, Joel. It’s not funny, you know,” I grunted, looking everywhere but at him. He sighed and manoeuvred his face until I couldn’t help but look at him. I closed my eyes.

“Mel, look at me please,” he commanded. I pursed my lips but opened my eyes. He was so close that I couldn’t think straight. I swallowed the saliva that rushed into my mouth.

“Why is it that you always have to argue with me? Here I am, trying to tell you that I’m in love with you, and you still want to disagree!”

“I – I …” I stammered, not knowing what to say.

Joel snickered. “What can I do to prove it?”

I dragged my face out of his hands with an effort and stomped over to the glass balustrade.

“You’re in love with me?” I asked, whirling around to face him.

He stopped in his tracks and watched me with a half smug, half pleading expression. “Would I say it if I wasn’t?”

I opened and closed my mouth, trying to work out a cutting, clever retort to that. But I had no words.

“Trying to catch a fly, Stinky?” Joel chuckled. I snapped my mouth shut, hearing my teeth click together.

“You want to prove it? Stop calling me Stinky!” I snapped, putting my good hand on my hip and eyeing him grumpily. He laughed out loud and closed the distance between us in two graceful strides.

“Melanie Elizabeth Black, I love you,” he murmured. “I’ve loved you for longer than you can possibly imagine.” He wasn’t even touching me, but his gaze felt more intimate than if I was standing naked in front of him. “Now, are you going to swallow your pride and respond?”

“Joel,” I groaned. I couldn’t bring myself to say the words, even when he’d had the courage to say them to me.

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