Page 28 of The Secret of the Dashing Detective
He stared over her shoulder as if he didn’t want to meet her gaze.
“You must trust me that this is for your own good.”
“Do I not have the ability to decide that for myself?”
His blue eyes finally lowered to hers, and she forgot where she was, what they were doing, that there were people moving past them.
“You want to know why?”
“That is what I am asking you.”
“Fine,” he said, and the control that he always held so carefully seemed to snap. “I do not want you to come too close because you and I cannotbeanything together. We are from different worlds. You are to marry Lord what’s-his-name and would have no interest in leaving your privileged life to join mine. I do not see what benefit there would be in the two of us spending time together, of you becoming familiar with myfamily, only for us to part ways eventually. One of us will be hurt. Both of us might be hurt. Whatever happens, it is best to stop it now, before it even starts.”
When he finished, his breaths were coming deeply, and he took a step back as though he had surprised himself with his reaction. Juliana couldn’t help but reach out a hand and slide it up the side of his face.
“I didn’t realize you felt like that.”
“I should have no feeling toward you.”
“But youdo,” she said, the thought filling her with warmth that blossomed out from her chest. “I thought… I thought you were repelled by me.”
“Why would you ever think that?” he asked incredulously.
“You told me that the kiss could never happen again. I thought I had been so terrible that you never wanted to repeat it because I was too inexperienced and that you were… repelled by me.”
He stepped toward her, wrapping his hands around her shoulders.
“Neverthink that,” he said fiercely. “You are… amazing. Don’t ever let yourself feel otherwise.”
Hope sparked in Juliana’s chest, and she looked up at him in impish glee. “So it wasn’t a horrible kiss?”
“No.”
“Would you care to repeat it?”
His eyes flicked back and forth from one of hers to the other.
“We cannot.”
“Why?”
“I told you why.”
“And I am telling you that whatever happens, we will figure it out when the time comes.”
“That is easy for you to say.”
“Why?” she challenged him. “Do you not understand that I feel as you do? That all this time I wondered what was missing with Lord Hemingway and then I found that missing piece is there whenever I’m with you? He is a nice enough man, but there are plenty of nice men out there. Neither he nor anyone else has ever made mefeelas you do. Like we fit together, that there is a spark between us that is impossible to deny. Let’s explore it and see where it takes us.”
His eyes shuttered closed for a moment and when he opened them and stared at her, his face nearing hers, she knew that she had captured him.
“This is a terrible idea,” he muttered.
“Perhaps.”
“We really should stop this before it even begins.”
“So you say.”
