Page 51 of Mr. Dangerous

I laughed. "Prom? Prom was ten years ago! Who could still be madaboutprom?"

He waited me out. The silence stretched between us, a silence full of things unsaid. I admitted, "Still furiousaboutprom."

"Iknewit!"

"Not about prom, necessarily. It was the whole thing. The way you approached me like you liked me and then suddenly shut downonme."

"I did like you. I had the biggest crushonyou."

I raised my hands in exasperation. "So whathappened?"

"I thought we already discussed this," he said. "I'm happy to talk about your feelings, but mine, no. I'm meh on talking about myfeelings."

"Oh no," I said. "Youstartedthis."

"I don't know." He hunched his big shoulders slightly, the movement sexy as hell. He watched his toes as they moved in slow, languid circles through the water. “That was around the time things went bad with my dad. I was trying to get my brothers to keep their chins up, trying to figure out how I could make sure I never turned out like my dad. I didn't have time forgirls."

"You had time for Kate,though."

"Kate wasdifferent."

"Sure. Classically beautiful. In your social sphere. She went to Yale,didn'tshe?"

"That's not how Kate wasdifferent."

"Oh, that's certainly how Kate isdifferent."

"I didn't like her like I like you." He paused, smiled playfully. "Likedyou."

"Uhhuh."

"My dad crawled out of the wreckage of his car and left his girlfriend behind," he said bluntly. "But it wasn't just that. He fought her on helping with her medical bills. Wouldn't take any responsibility. He told me,you'll understand when you're older, son, I'm doing what I have to do to take care of ourfamily."

"Did shesuehim?"

He nodded. "Not that it helped. There's still that part of you, when you're a kid, that wants to believe in your parents. I was trying to take care of my family, my brothers, when they didn’t have anyone all of asudden."

"And you didn't have time for romance." For me. My eyes were intent on the ocean, on the deep blue spread before us and the waves breaking against the rocks at the edge of thebeach.

Rob leaned into me. He touched my jaw with one finger, turning my face to lookathim.

"It wasn't about time. I didn't want to have you while I didn't know if I was worthhaving."

I could feel his finger against my jaw as I swallowed hard. "It still comes back to time. There isn't enoughtimenow."

"It's time enough to make up for what happened before," he said. "What we both missed out on." He traced his finger up my jawline, the touch sending jolts of electricity down my spine. "Twenty-three more days to convince you that you'rebeautiful."

I gently folded his hand in mine. "I'm not looking for twenty-threedays,Rob."

"You're going to see me every day," he said. "It's going to be pretty hard not to fall in lovewithme."

I climbed out of the tub, wrapping a towel aroundmybody.

"I know," I said. "Believe me,Iknow."

He swung his legs out of the hot tub. "What if it wasn't just twenty-three days? What if we saw each otherafterthat?"

I stopped, dripping wet splatters across thetile. "Rob."

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