Her breath snagged in her throat. ‘So soon?’
‘Why delay? Unless you’d prefer we took a honeymoon first?’
A honeymoon conjured exactly the kind of imagery she wished to avoid. She shook her head quickly. His smile showed he understood.
‘Are you afraid of me, Annabelle?’ His fingers caught her chin, gently lifting her face towards his so he could read her eyes.
Her lips parted, words trapped inside her.
‘Or are you afraid of wanting me, even after all this time?’
Her eyes widened at his perceptive powers. Or perhaps she was just that painstakingly obvious.
Her throat moved as she swallowed. ‘I’m not afraid of anything.’
His laugh was silent, just a movement of his lips and a release of his warm breath. It fanned her temple. Her insides shifted; her lungs squeezed.
‘When I kissed you today it felt as though no time had passed.’
That was exactly how it had been for her, too!
‘It was just playing a part,’ she reminded him, but the words came out high-pitched.
‘No, it was more than that. It’s the saving grace of what we’re doing. You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but our bodies are in sync, and that’s something. It’s enough, for now, to base our marriage on. Don’t bother denying that you feel it too.’
Was that what she’d been doing?
She shook her head a little, losing herself in the magnetic depths of his eyes. ‘I don’t want to feel anything for you,’ she said quietly.
‘Why not?’ His thumb padded her lower lip, sending little shivers of desire through her.
‘Because.’
One side of his lip lifted in a curl that could have been amusement or cynicism. ‘That’s not really an answer.’
‘I know.’
‘You’re still angry with me for what I said to you seven years ago?’
Old wounds festered deep inside her. ‘I’m not still angry,’ she said quietly. ‘But I’m smarter now than I was then. I learned my lesson.’
‘What lesson is that?’
‘Play with fire and you’re bound to get burned.’
‘Am I fire?’
‘You were for me.’
‘And I burned you?’
His head was moving closer with every word he spoke, so his lips were only a hair’s-breadth from hers. ‘You changed me,’ she said quietly.
‘How?’
She could hardly think straight. ‘You taught me not to take things at face value.’
‘Why?’