Local Hero

me that have nothing to do with my money, because you didn’t know until a few hours ago that I had any to speak of. Some of those feelings don’t have anything to do with the fact that I’m fond of your son. They’re very personal, as in you and me.”
    He was right, absolutely and completely right. She could have murdered him for it. “Don’t tell me how I feel.”
    “All right.” After he spoke, he surprised her by rising and helping her to her feet. Then he took her in his arms again. “I’ll tell you how
I
feel then. I care for you—more than I’d counted on.”
    She paled beneath her cold-tinted cheeks. There was more than a hint of desperation in her eyes as she shook her head and tried to back away. “Don’t say that to me.”
    “Why not?” He struggled against impatience as he lowered his brow to hers. “You’ll have to get used to it. I did.”
    “I don’t want this. I don’t want to feel this way.”
    He tipped her head back, and his eyes were very serious. “We’ll have to talk about that.”
    “No. There’s nothing to talk about. This is just getting out of hand.”
    “It’s not out of hand yet.” He tangled his fingers in the tips of her hair, but his eyes never left hers. “I’m almost certain it will be before long, but it isn’t yet. You’re too smart and too strong for that.”
    She’d be able to breathe easier in a moment. She was sure of it. She’d be able to breathe easier as soon as she was away from him. “No, I’m not afraid of you.” Oddly, she discovered that much was true.
    “Then kiss me.” His voice was coaxing now, gentle. “It’s nearly twilight. Kiss me, once, before the sun goes down.”
    She found herself leaning into him, lifting her lips up and letting her lashes fall without questioning why it should seem so right, so natural to do as he asked. There would be questions later, though she was certain the answers wouldn’t come as easily. For now, she touched her lips to his and found them cool, cool and patient.
    The world was all ice and snow, forts and fairylands, but his lips were real. They fit on hers firmly, warming her soft, sensitive skin while the racing of her heart heated her body. There was the rushing whoosh of traffic in the distance, but closer, more intimate, was the whisper of her coat sliding against his as they pressed tighter together.
    He wanted to coax, to persuade, and just once to see her lips curve into a smile as he left them. He knew there were times when a man who preferred action and impulse had to go step by step. Especially when the prize at the top was precious.
    He hadn’t been prepared for her, but he knew he could accept what was happening between them with more ease than she. There were still secrets tucked inside her, hurts that had only partially healed. He knew better than to wish for the power to wipe all that aside. How she’d lived and what had happened to her were all part of the woman she was. The woman he was very, very close to falling in love with.
    So he would take it step by step, Mitch told himself as he placed her away from him. And he would wait.
    “That might have cleared up a few points, but I think we still have to talk.” He took her hand to keep her close another moment. “Soon.”
    “I don’t know.” Had she ever been this confused before? She’d thought she’d left these feelings, these doubts behind her long ago.
    “I’ll come up or you can come down, but we’ll talk.”
    He was jockeying her into a corner, one she knew she’d be backed into sooner or later. “Not tonight,” she said, despising herself for being a coward. “Rad and I have a lot to do.”
    “Procrastination’s not your style.”
    “It is this time,” she murmured, and turned away quickly. “Radley, we have to go in.”
    “Look, Mom, I just finished, isn’t it great?” He stood back to show off his warrior. “You hardly started yours.”
    “Maybe we’ll finish it tomorrow.” She walked to him quickly and took him by the hand. “We have to go in and fix dinner now.”
    “But can’t we just—”
    “No, it’s nearly dark.”
    “Can Mitch come?”
    “No, he can’t.” She shot a glance over her shoulder as they walked. He was hardly more than a shadow now, standing beside her son’s fort. “Not tonight.”
    Mitch put a hand on his dog’s head as Taz whined and started forward. “Nope. Not this time.”
    * * *
    There didn’t seem any way of avoiding him, Hester thought as she