River’s End

feelings for you.”
    He released her abruptly to pace away, to stand all but vibrating with frustration on the bank of the stream. The light was gone now, so the low fire flickered gold and the first shimmer of the rising moon shifted through the trees.
    “Do you think this is a snap for me?” he said wearily. “Because I’ve had other women in my life, it’s a breeze for me to deal with the only one who’s ever mattered?”
    He turned back. She stood where he’d left her, but had lifted her arms to cross them defensively around her. Those delicate fingers of moonlight shivered over her, pale silver.
    “Olivia, the first time I saw you, you were a baby. Something about you reached right out, so much more than that sad image on the television screen, and grabbed me. It’s never let go. I didn’t see you again until you were twelve, gangly and brave and all haunted eyes. There was a connection. There was nothing sexual about it.”
    He started back toward her, watched her shift slightly, as if to brace. “I never forgot you. You were in and out of my head. Then you were eighteen. You opened the door of your apartment, and there you were, tall and slender and lovely. A little distracted, a little impatient. Then your eyes cleared. God, I’ve had your eyes in my head as long as I can remember. And you smiled at me and cut me off at the knees. I’ve never been the same.” He stopped a foot away from her and saw she was trembling.
    “I’ve never been the same.”
    Her skin was shivering, her heart beating too fast. “You’re fantasizing, Noah. You’re letting your imagination run wild.”
    “I did plenty of fantasizing about you.” He was calm now, certain because he could see her nerves. “But it didn’t come close. I did some compensating, too. But there was never a woman who pulled at me the way you do. Straight from the gut. I know I hurt you. I didn’t understand you or myself well enough then. Even when I came here and saw you again, I didn’t understand it. I just knew seeing you thrilled me. I’ve never gotten over you. Do you know what it was like to realize I’d never gotten over you?”
    Panic wanted to rise, taunted her to run. Pride had her standing her ground. “You’re mixing things up, Noah.”
    “No, I’m not.” He reached up, touched her face, then framed it in his hands. “Look at me, Liv. Look. There’s one thing I’m absolutely clear on. I’m so completely in love with you.”
    A messy mix of joy and terror clogged her throat. “I don’t want you to be.”
    “I know.” He touched his lips gently to hers. “It scares you.”
    “I don’t want this.” She gripped his wrists. “I won’t give you what you’re looking for.”
    “You are what I’m looking for. and I’ve already found you. Next step is to figure out what you want, and what you’re looking for.”
    “I told you I already have everything I want in my life.”
    “If that were true. I wouldn’t scare you. I’m going to build a life with you, Olivia. I’ve been waiting to start and didn’t even know it. It’s only fair I give you time to catch up.”
    “I’m not interested in marriage.”
    “I haven’t asked you yet,” he pointed out and his lips parted as they covered hers again. “But I’ll get to that. Meanwhile, just tell me one thing.” He cruised into the kiss so that they could both float on it. “Is what you’re feeling for me just a few sparks?”
    It was warmth she felt, a steady stream of it, and a longing so deep, so aching, it beat like a heart. “I don’t know what I feel.”
    “Good answer. Let me love you.” He walked her backward toward the tent, muddling her brain with hands and lips. “And we’ll see if the answer changes.”
    He was patient and thorough and showed her what it was to be touched by a man who loved her. Each time she tried to hold back, he would simply find a new way to slide through her defenses. To fill a heart reluctant to be filled. To steal a heart determined not to be taken.
    When he moved inside her, slow and smooth and deep, he saw the answer he wanted in her eyes. “I love you, Olivia.”
    He closed his mouth over hers, drew in her ragged breath and wondered how long he would wait to hear her say it.

Twenty-nine
    The man was so carelessly cheerful, Olivia thought, it was all but impossible not to respond in kind. It didn’t matter that the morning had dawned with a thin, drizzling rain that would undoubtedly have them soaked