Snowfall on Haven Point(57)
Though she could still read turmoil in his expression over their kiss, he apparently decided to let it go, much to her relief.
“If I think of anything, I’ll let you know.”
“I’m keeping my fingers crossed the storm doesn’t come early and interfere with the Lights on the Lake festival this weekend. My kids have been looking forward to it since we moved here.”
He nodded. “That’s always a fun holiday tradition for people in both Haven Point and Shelter Springs—unless you’re in law enforcement. Then you spend the whole time directing traffic and handling crowd control.”
“This year you can just sit on the sidelines and let your deputies and the Haven Point Police Department handle it.”
“Oh yeah. Won’t that be fun?” he said, his tone dry. “In case you didn’t know this about me, I’m not particularly good at sitting on the sidelines.”
She doubted anyone in town would be surprised by that. “You could always ask Mayor Kilpatrick to cancel this year.”
“Ha-ha.”
She mustered a smile in response. “I’m sure the celebration will survive without you. This year, you could possibly just try to enjoy it.”
“Maybe.”
He didn’t look at all convinced, but she decided to let it drop. If he wanted to stay home and brood, that was his own business.
“I had better go. Do you need anything else before I take off?”
For a brief instant, something hot and intense flared in his eyes, stirring an immediate answering response in her. For one wild moment she let herself imagine how things could be between them. That kiss had given her only a sampling, but it had been addictive enough. Given the chance, she had no doubt Marshall would bring that serious intensity of his into the bedroom, coupled with scrupulous attention to detail and that underlying sweetness.
She really tried not to moan aloud.
“I think I’m good,” he said.
Oh, she had no doubt about that—but realized he was only answering her inquiry about doing anything else for him.
“Have a good afternoon and evening, then.” She was quite proud of her casual, unaffected tone. “I’ll see you later.”
She turned to leave, but his outstretched hand stopped her.
“Andie, I have to tell you again that I’m sorry about what just happened.”
She caught her breath, wishing she had hurried out the door just a little faster to avoid this awkwardness.
“Fine. You said that. Can we just drop it now?”
“You need to know, I don’t usually kiss women out of the blue like that. I should have been more...sensitive, under the circumstances.”
He had obviously been stewing about this since they left the car. She didn’t want to talk about it, but short of rudely walking away, she didn’t know how to avoid it.
“I hate to point out the obvious, but you have a broken leg. If I hadn’t wanted you to kiss me, I could have walked out at any point and you wouldn’t have been able to do much to stop me.”
“I’m bigger than you are. I could have overpowered you.”
“But you didn’t. Nor would you.”
“How would you know that?” he asked, with obvious skepticism.
“I just do. Gut instinct. I wanted you to kiss me, Marshall. I’m glad you did. I enjoyed every moment of it.”
“Did you?” He looked a little taken aback but not entirely displeased.
She didn’t want to have this conversation with him, but now that they had started, she decided to be completely honest.
“I will not let one terrible night out of my life dictate how I live the rest of it. I will not let something that happened to me against my will take control over my sensuality and my desire.”
As she spoke the words, she felt a tiny spark inside her, a little echo of the confidence and self-assurance that seemed to have been hibernating somewhere deep down.
“I wanted you to kiss me. I’m glad you did,” she repeated. “If circumstances were different between us, I might even want to do more than kiss you. When your injuries heal, anyway. You’re a very attractive man, and what’s more, I like you. I didn’t expect to a few days ago, but you’ve kind of grown on me.”
He gave a surprised-sounding laugh. “That’s blunt enough.”
“I just want to be clear you did nothing wrong in kissing me. I kissed you right back, remember?” She paused. “If anything, I’m grateful to you.”
“Grateful. That’s a first.”
“Oh, I doubt that,” she murmured, suddenly certain he likely knew his way around the rest of a woman’s body as well as he had demonstrated around her mouth.