Page 55 of Romance and Peppermint Lattes
“Now just a minute,” Nolan said, apparently regaining his composure. “You’re a nice kid, and to be honest I’ve been impressed—”
“I am not a kid,” she corrected with quiet authority, “and you know it.”
“Annie... Maryanne,” he said, “listen to me. What you feel for me isn’t love.” His face revealed a bitterness she hadn’t seen before. He walked toward her, gripped her shoulders and gazed down at her.
“That won’t work, either,” she said in the same quiet voice. She wasn’t a poor little rich girl who’d only recently discovered who she was. Nor had she mistaken admiration for love. “I know what I feel.”
She slipped her arms around his neck and stood on tiptoe, wanting to convince him of her sincerity with a kiss.
But before her mouth could meet his, Nolan jerked his head back, preventing the contact. He dropped his arms and none too gently pushed her away.
“Are you afraid to kiss me?”
“You’re damn right I am,” he said, burying his hands in his pockets as he hastily moved even farther away.
Maryanne smiled softly. “And with good reason. We both know what would happen if you did. You’ve done a good job of hiding your feelings, I’ll grant you that much. I was nearly fooled.”
“Naturally I’m flattered.” His expression was darkening by the second. He stalked across the room, his shoulders hunched forward. He didn’t say anything else, and Maryanne strongly suspected he was at a loss for words. Nolan wasneverat a loss for words. Words were his stock-in-trade.
But he was confronting emotions now, not words or concepts, and she knew him well enough to realize how uncomfortable that made him.
He’d hidden his feelings behind a mask of gruff annoyance, allowing her to believe she’d become a terrible nuisance in his life. He needed to disguise what he felt for her—to prevent her from learning what everyone else already knew.
Nolan was in love with her.
The mere thought thrilled her and gave her more courage than she’d ever possessed in her life.
“I fully expect you to be flattered,” she said gently, “but I’m not telling you this to give your ego a boost. I honestly love you, and nothing my parents say is going to convince me to leave Seattle.”
“Maryanne, please...”
He was prepared to push her away verbally, as he had so often. This time she wouldn’t let him. This time she walked over to him, threw both arms around his waist and hugged him close.
He raised his hands to her shoulders, ready to ease her from him, but the moment they came to rest on her he seemed to lose his purpose.
“This is ridiculous,” she heard him mumble. He held himself rigid for a moment or two, then with a muttered curse buried his face in her hair. A ragged sigh tore through his body.
Experiencing a small sense of triumph, Maryanne pressed her ear to his chest and smiled contentedly when she heard his racing uneven heartbeat.
“You shouldn’t let me hold you like this.” His voice was low and hushed. “Tell me not to,” he breathed as his lips moved through her hair and then lower to the pulse point behind her ear and the slope of her neck.
“I don’t want you to stop...” She turned her head, begging him to touch and kiss her.
“Annie, please.”
“I want to be in your arms more than anywhere. More than anything.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying....”
She lifted her head enough for their eyes to meet. Placing her finger on his lips, she shook her head. “I’m a woman, a grown woman, and there’s no question of my not knowing what I want.”
His hands gently grazed her neck, as though he was still hesitant and unsure. Kissing her was whathewanted—she could read it clearly in his dark eyes—but he was holding himself back, his face contorted with indecision.
“Go ahead, kiss me,” she urged softly, wanting him so much her whole body seemed to ache. “I dare you to.”
His breathing was labored, and Maryanne could sense the forces raging within him. A fresh wave of tenderness filled her.
“You make it so hard to do what’s right,” he groaned.
