Chapter 12 #2
Her smile faded. “Oh. You really don’t like it.”
“Did I say that?”
“You don’t seem too happy with it.”
“Will you or will you not admit that what we have here is more than a trim?”
“Jeez, I feel like I’m on the witness stand or something. I’m sorry. I just got into my zone.”
He smiled. “I know. I was watching.”
Her face heated with embarrassment. “You were?”
“Uh huh. I could’ve stopped you.”
Again that flash of awareness mixed with a hint of what was definitely desire.
Since she was unable to process all that she saw, she looked away from him. “So why didn’t you?” she asked when they were in the elevator.
“Because you were in your zone, and I enjoyed watching you.”
She almost gasped when he reached out to touch her hair.
“Seems only fair.”
“What does?” She reminded herself to breathe.
“You got to run your fingers through mine. I’ve wondered if yours is as soft as it looks.” When he twisted a lock of long hair around his finger and brought it close enough to smell, she did gasp. “It’s even softer than it looks. You always smell so good.”
She moved away from him just before the elevator doors opened to the lobby. “What are you doing?” she whispered. “Why are you doing this?”
“What am I doing?”
“If you’re looking for a rebound, you’ve got the wrong girl.”
He stopped walking. “Is that what you think?”
“I don’t know what to think. I thought we were friends,” Juliana said, mortified when her eyes flooded with tears. She was like a faucet lately.
He put his arms around her and pulled her tight against him.
Suddenly, the strain, the uncertainty, and the agony of the last few days caught up to her, and before she knew it she was sobbing in Michael’s arms right in the middle of the busy hotel lobby.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered after several minutes passed. She tried not to notice how safe and comfortable she felt in the sanctuary of his embrace or that her arms were wrapped around him, too.
He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t let her go, either.
“I’m okay,” she said when she finally pulled back from him.
He kept an arm around her as they went outside. Once they were in the car, he turned to her. “I’m not looking for a rebound, Juliana. That’s not what this is.”
“Then what is it?” she asked softly.
He ran a finger over her cheek to brush away a lone tear. “It’s not a rebound.”
“I don’t want it, Michael. Whatever it is. I love Jeremy.”
“I know you do, but you see, the thing is, I’m falling for you, Juliana.”
“What?” she asked, flabbergasted. She pushed his hand away from her face. “You can’t mean that!”
He kept his eyes locked on hers. “In the five days I’ve known you, you’ve given me more, been there for me more, done more for me than Paige did in four years.
I knew I would care for you from almost the first moment I saw you.
When I found you crying in the airport on Sunday, all I wanted to do was scoop you up and take you home with me. ”
New tears wet Juliana’s cheeks. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
He took her hand. “On Friday night I tried to get Paige to marry me right away. Do you know why?”
Juliana shook her head.
“Because I was terrified after I met you. I already knew everything was about to change, and I guess a part of me thought I should try to stop it. But I was powerless to stop it. In those first moments with you, I knew I wouldn’t marry her.”
“Michael,” she sobbed. “Stop. Stop saying these things.”
“Juliana, any man who would let you think, for even one minute, that you aren’t enough for him doesn’t deserve you.”
“Please,” she whimpered. “Please stop.”
With a hand to her chin, he turned her to him.
“I knew I was falling for you when you jumped right in with Rachelle on Sunday night and did her hair. I knew it when I found you dancing in the kitchen when you were making me dinner. I knew it because my heart almost stopped when you told me someone hassled you on the street. I knew it when I heard you talking to Rachelle about what she saw, and you said all the right things—all the things she needed to hear.” He ran his thumb along her jaw.
“And when I felt your fingers in my hair I knew I wanted them there always. Don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m saying. ”
He leaned over to kiss her gently, without demand, and for one breathless moment, she let him. Then she pulled away. “Michael. My head is spinning. Please don’t.”
“I’m sorry. I know this isn’t a good time for you to be hearing this, but I couldn’t let you think this was about rebounds.
I’m not going to pressure you or push you, so you don’t have to worry about that.
I’m going to be so wrapped up in this trial for the next month or two I won’t have time for anything else. I just wanted you to know.”
“I can’t stay with you anymore. Not now.”
“Why? I just said I’m not going to do anything about it.”
“Because everything’s going to be weird between us.”
He took her hand again. “It won’t be weird because you’ll hardly see me. I don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t know… I’ll only stay if you promise not to mention any of this again. I can’t deal with it on top of everything else.”
“I promise I won’t say another word about it until you do.”
She pulled her hand out of his grasp. “That’s not going to happen.”
“We’ll see,” he said, starting the car to drive them home. “We’ll just see about that.”