The tips of his fingers began to itch.
"I'm glad you stopped by." Holding tight to her courage, she took a step
forward and tried to remember that she had the power. "I was feeling a
little blue."
He took a step back. More than his fingertips was itching now. "I said
I'd be back directly."
"You could stay fora coffee or whatever?"
Coffee? If his system got any more wired than it was at that moment, it
would have jumped right through his skin to dance the hornpipe. "I don't
thinka"
"Ethan, I can't steer clear of you the way you asked me. St. Chris is
too small, and our lives are too tangled up together." She could feel
the pulse in her throat pounding against her skin in hard, insistent
little knocks. "And I don't want to. I don't want to steer clear of you,
Ethan."
"I said I had my reasons." And he could think of what they were if she'd
just stop looking at him with those big green eyes. "I'm just watching
out for you, Grace."
"I don't need you to watch out for me. We're all grown up, both of us.
We're alone, both of us." She stepped closer. She could smell his
after-work shower on him, but under it, as always, was the scent of the
Bay. "I don't want to be alone tonight."
He edged back. If he hadn't known her better, he'd have sworn she was
stalking him. "I've made up my mind on this." But damn it, it wasn't his
mind working overtime, it was his loins. "Just stay back, Grace."
"It seems like I've been staying back forever. I want to move forward,
Ethan, whatever that means. I'm tired of staying back or standing still.
If you don't want me, I'll live with that. But if you doa" She moved
closer, lifted a hand to lay it on his heart. And discovered that his
heart was pounding. "If you do, then why won't you take me?"
He backed hard into the counter. "Stop it. You don't know what you're
doing here."
"Of course I know what I'm doing." She snapped it out, suddenly furious
with the pair of them. "I'm just not doing a good job of it, since you'd
rather climb up my kitchen wall than lay a finger on me. What do you
think I'd do, shatter into a million pieces? I'm a grown woman, Ethan.
I've been married, I've had a child. I know what I'm asking you, and I
know what I want."
"I know you're a grown woman. I've got eyes."
"Then use them, and look at me."
How could he do otherwise? Why had he ever believed he could? There,
standing in shadow and light, was everything he yearned for. "I'm
looking at you, Grace." With my back to the wall, he thought. And my
heart in my throat.
"Here's a woman who wants you, Ethan. One who needs you." She saw his
eyes change at that, sharpen, darken, focus. On an unsteady breath, she
stepped back. "Maybe I'm what you want. What you need."
He was afraid she was, and that telling himself he could and would do
without had been an exercise in futility. She was so lovely, all rose
and gold in the candlelight, her eyes so clear and honest. "I know you