They were only a block away from the hotel when the heavens opened up and poured rain down on the two of them. Michael put his arm around Jenny’s waist as they ran, laughing. He pushed her through the revolving doors first, quickly following her. She’d turned to wait for him, and the sight that greeted Michael made the humor die on his lips. Her hands were behind her head, fixing her hair, giving him a visual feast. Her dampened shirt had become both translucent and clingy. He could easily make out the outline of her dark aureola. Her nipples had tightened into two clearly visible peaks.
Quickly, he shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over her shoulders as she lowered her arms.
“Thank you,” she said, pulling the jacket around her. As they made their way through the quiet lobby toward the elevators, he slid his arm around her waist. She still shivered, despite the protection of his jacket. He rubbed his hand over her arm to warm her. The cold, damp fabric probably offered less comfort than nothing at all.
Michael pushed the button summoning the elevator, and turned toward Jenny. In that short instant of time, she’d slipped off the jacket, folded it over one arm and crossed her arms just under her breasts. In that position, she seemed to be offering them up to him, and damn, if he didn’t want to accept.
“Do me a favor and put the jacket back on.”
“Why?” Jenny cocked her head to one side, watching him. Unerringly, his gaze traveled to the source of his discomfort. Her head lowered, and when she raised it again, he noted the slow, seductive smile that spread across her face.
“Having trouble thinking of me as a little sister right now?” she asked, one eyebrow raised provocatively.
“What do you want me to say, Jenny? That I don’t notice you as a woman? We both know that’s not true.”
“I want you to admit that, whether you like it or not, there is an attraction between us. I want you to admit that when you kissed me, you did it because you wanted to.”
Michael averted his gaze, surprised by her request. She wanted him to admit to an attraction between them? Attraction didn’t begin to cover what he felt for her.
He studied her troubled face. “What would you gain by me telling you that?”
“The truth, Michael. It would be the truth. Don’t I deserve that much from you?”
Yes. She deserved that much and more. More than he could give her. But he couldn’t bring himself to answer her, so he said nothing.
After a moment, she sighed heavily, turning away from him to face the closed elevator doors. “Is that how it’s going to be between us?” she asked.
Her voice was so quiet, Michael had to strain to hear her. “Polite strangers who never talk about anything that really matters?”
With his finger curved under her chin, he tilted her face toward him. “We are a lot more than strangers.”
She shook her head, dislodging his hand. “Really? Then why is it every time I bring up the past you change the subject? Why is it every time I get close to you, you push me away?”
At last he could be honest with her. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You wouldn’t do that.”
How could she possibly have so much confidence in him? He wanted to shake her and tell her that any faith she had in him was misplaced. He wasn’t the same man he’d been ten years ago. She of all people should know that. He was definitely no hero.
Maybe she had forgotten how they’d parted, but he hadn’t. He remembered gazing up at her window as he’d been about to ride away on his motorcycle. She’d stood there, watching him, her arms crossed over her chest. Even at that distance, he’d sworn he’d seen the tears glistening on her cheeks. Without thinking, he’d lifted his hand to wave to her. He would never forget the desolation he’d felt as she’d slowly backed away. He never wanted to feel like that again.
“You don’t know anything about me anymore,” he told her. “We haven’t laid eyes on each other in ten years. If it weren’t for your father’s accident we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. How do you know what I’m capable of?”
“Are you trying to scare me now?”
“Is it working?”
She looked at him as if he’d asked her the most ridiculous question in the world. “No.”
Exasperated, he ran his hand over his face. “Damn it, Jenny. Why won’t you leave things alone?”
“I can’t, Michael. I can’t. I’m tired of all the deception, including my own.”
He heard the soft ping of the elevator arriving, and in that split second he knew he couldn’t go on fighting himself and her too. If she wanted to be with him, he’d take the chance that she wouldn’t hate him tomorrow for what they would do tonight.
