“I…I owe you a huge apology,” she began falteringly. “I’ve held so much anger toward you in the past. I’ve been so unfair. You never did anything to deserve my attitude.”
“I may have been stubborn a time or two myself,” he admitted sheepishly.
She turned to him and smiled. She really liked him in that moment.
“No. You’ve been nothing but kind and gene
rous ever since Brendan’s surgery. I wish you’d accept my apology for being so…prickly around you,” she finished in a quavering whisper.
His expression hardened and his eyes widened slightly, as if he wasn’t really sure how to take her shift in demeanor.
“Colleen,” he muttered. He touched her jaw. His fingers felt pleasantly cool and dry next to her skin. His hand shifted and he palmed her neck, his fingers rubbing just below her scalp. Her entire body stilled in awareness, as if every cell had just gone on high alert at his touch. “If it makes you feel any better, I always understood why you felt the need to go on the defensive around me.”
“You did?” Part of her was surprised by his admission, but most of her was completely focused on his massaging fingertips on her nape.
“The cards were stacked against us. Our history saw to that. It was inevitable things were going to be prickly between us, as you put it.”
She lowered her gaze, staring at his nose. “Then Sunset Beach happened, and things got even more complicated.”
He made a sound of agreement and bent his head toward her. He continued to stroke her muscles with talented fingertips. “I probably should admit that I was attracted to you before what happened there…before the accident, even.”
Her gaze bounced up to his. “You were?”
“One time when I was a teenager, I saw you in front of the library. You smiled at me and said hi.”
“You remember that?” she blurted out, amazed.
His arched his eyebrows incredulously. “Are you kidding? I was an outsider looking into your world. In the summers, I worked fifty…sixty hours a week. In the hockey off-season, I was a geek who spent whatever spare time he had with his nose buried in a book—”
“You were not a geek. You were brilliant,” Colleen insisted, but he continued as if she hadn’t interrupted him.
“One day I unexpectedly come face-to-face with a bunch of pretty girls as I’m leaving the library loaded down with books, and I’m sweating it big-time, and suddenly the prettiest one in the pack—Colleen Kavanaugh—smiles at me. I’m surprised I didn’t do a header on the pavement.”
She snorted with laughter. “You are so full of it.”
His gaze narrowed on her smile. “I meant every word,” he murmured. “Your smile still gets me, Colleen.”
Her lips trembled in anticipation when he leaned forward and placed his mouth on them. He caressed her firmly…sweetly. Somehow, his tender kiss stirred her just as deeply as his ravishing ones. Something swelled inside her, warm and golden. Disappointment flooded her when he leaned back a moment later and studied her with smoldering eyes.
“Maybe we better go inside before I do something we both might regret,” he muttered.
“I’m not one hundred percent positive I’d regret it,” she whispered.
“If you keep staring at me like that, you’re going to find out quick enough.”
She smiled. He smiled back, even though the hard glint of arousal remained in his eyes.
Colleen hadn’t realized how warm the interior of her car had become until she stepped into the frigid Lake Michigan wind a moment later. Eric held out his hand and led her up the walk. She slid her gloved hand into his.
“You must be freezing,” she said apologetically, referring to his coatless state.
He shrugged and hurried her up the stairs and through the front door. Colleen stepped into an attractive, high-ceilinged entryway that included a marble-tiled floor and a rustic, elegant chandelier. He stepped in front of her when she curiously tried to peer farther into the house.
“You’re sure you’re ready for this?” he asked, placing his hands on her upper arms.
“Seeing your house?” she asked doubtfully. Something about the intensity of his question made her wonder if he’d been asking about something more serious.
A smile tilted his mouth. “For starters.”