Up Close and Personal. Maureen Child

she was really beginning to enjoy herself, it was over.

      He let her go and took a step back. Even with her mind reeling, she saw amusement in his eyes again and wanted to kick herself.

      “I think we’ve both got our answers now,” he said.

      “Get out,” she whispered.

      Behind them, Beast whimpered.

      “All right.”

      Surprised, she watched him warily. “Just like that?”

      He shrugged. “I’ll not stay when you tell me to go. But I won’t stay away, Laura. What’s between you and me isn’t done, is it?”

      “Yes,” she said, realizing how stupid that sounded coming from a woman who had just willingly given herself up to a kiss hot enough to burn down the house. “It is.”

      He reached out, cupped her cheek in one palm and stroked her skin with his thumb. “We’ll see about that, won’t we?”

      “Why, Ronan? You left two months ago without looking back. Why do you care now?”

      He let his hand drop. “There’s something you’re not telling me, Laura. You want me, that’s easy enough to see …”

      She grimaced and huffed out a breath.

      “But it’s more than that, and I think you know it. There’s something … else. And I’ll know what it is before we’re done.”

      She was in trouble, and she knew it. Her own body betrayed her when she was around Ronan. And she knew, if he put his mind to it, he would discover the truth about the surprise pregnancy that had ended in a miscarriage. Maybe Georgia was right. Maybe she should just tell him.

      But the baby was her secret. Her loss.

      She’d known from the first that there was no future in a relationship with Ronan. The day he’d walked into their real estate office and told her in brief, concise terms exactly what he wanted. What he needed from her. And maybe it had been the Irish accent that had done most of the seducing. But it hadn’t mattered in the end. She’d allowed herself to be swept up into an affair that had burned so brightly, it had gone to ash before its time.

      “Now, see there,” he whispered. “It’s that flash of something … off … in your eyes that intrigues me. You’ve a secret, Laura.”

      “No, I don’t,” she lied.

      He laughed and shook his head. “All women have their secrets, darlin’,” he said, “and all men find a way to reveal them.”

      “Sure of yourself, aren’t you?” Of course he was. It was one of the things she’d liked most about him. At first.

      “Be foolish of me not to be, wouldn’t it?”

      He would see it like that. Laura had never known a man as self-confident, as completely convinced of the rightness of everything he did, as Ronan Connolly. She envied that as much as it irritated her. Which was, she was forced to admit, quite a lot.

      He turned to go.

      “What about Beast?” she asked.

      He shot a look at the dog that had moved to stand in front of Laura, like a big, furry shield. A smile curved Ronan’s mouth briefly. “He can stay with you. For now.”

      Laura’s fingers curled into the dog’s long, shaggy hair. “Ronan?”

      He stopped and looked back at her. The lamplight didn’t climb as high as his face, so his features, his eyes, were in shadow when she asked, “Why is it so important to you? Why do you care what my secrets are?”

      A long moment of silence stretched out until all she heard was Beast’s gentle breathing and the tap of rain at the window. Just as she decided he wasn’t going to answer her at all, he spoke.

      “Because I want what’s mine, Laura Page.”

      “But I’m not yours.”

      “You were,” he reminded her, “and if those secrets still belong to me, I’ll have them before we’re done.”

      He left her then, quietly closing the door behind him.

      Laura dropped onto the edge of the bed, finally giving in to the weakness in her knees. She lifted one hand to her mouth and swore she could still feel the buzz of his kiss sliding through her.

      Then she sighed.

      He hadn’t returned her key.