Forbidden: A Shade Darker – The Complete Collection. Leslie Kelly

wanting to keep them safe from harm, especially Emily.

      “You know what I remember most?” he said.

      She almost hated to ask. “What?”

      The pool? My birthday? The scene with Seth?

      “I most remember holding your hand all day at Disneyland.”

      She sucked in a breath, taken by surprise.

      “Really?”

      He gazed down at her, tenderness etched into his face. “Really. I’d never done that before. I’d had girlfriends, but I’d never just walked hand in hand through a theme park with anyone.”

      The memory meant something to him, she could tell. His stare was intense, so filled with...what was it? Longing? A yearning for a time when life had been so simple that he could experience pure pleasure by holding a girl’s hand?

      She had catalogued all the ways Rand’s life had changed since she’d known him, but she’d only ever tallied the positives. The fame, the money, the travel, the fun, the thrill of the game. She hadn’t considered the downsides. It would be impossible for Rand to go to a theme park and just enjoy himself now. Such simple pleasures were completely denied to people at his level of fame, and she had to wonder if the price he paid for such soaring success was one he regretted having to pay.

      “That was a good day,” she said softly.

      “So, are you going to talk to me now? Let me explain why I came here?”

      “I think it’s pretty clear.”

      “I didn’t mean to offend you.”

      “I’m not offended—not really. Surprised, I guess.”

      “I just wanted to see you. I’ve never been able to forget the time we spent together, and the way things ended with us. I wanted to know how your life turned out.”

      “You could have sent a thinking-of-you card.”

      “Would you have replied?”

      “Probably not.”

      “So you see why I had to come.”

      No, she didn’t. It was crazy to believe he’d come here, as he said, to finish what they’d started. He could have a different sex partner every day for a year—or ten—if he wanted to. Yet she couldn’t imagine anything else they’d started that long-ago summer that a man as rich, powerful and successful as Rand might be anxious to finish. It wasn’t as if their teenage summer fling constituted some big, unfinished business.

      But maybe, like that simple day in a theme park with a girl, he was longing for a lifestyle he could no longer have. Maybe he wanted to grasp one last memory of the Rand he’d been before he’d become the sexiest athlete in the world.

      Emily had never been one to hide from the truth of a situation or bury her head in the sand. Being here with Rand, being held by him, inhaling his essence, feeling the strength of him, was making her crazy and she needed to be sure of where she stood. So she had to ask him.

      “Did you really come here planning to have sex with me?”

      He gazed at her, not appearing shocked by the bluntness of her question. “Would it surprise you if I said yes?”

      “Are you saying yes?”

      “Yes.”

      She froze, almost stumbling. He kept her upright, locked in his strong arms. Shaking her head hard, not sure whether she was having some kind of surreal dream, she asked, “Why me?”

      “You’re beautiful.”

      “There are a hundred more beautiful women in this room, much less in the entire world. You could have any of them. So, I repeat, why me?”

      He was quiet for a moment, staring searchingly at her face, as if debating how to answer. Finally, he said, “Lots of reasons, but, I guess the most important one is that the curiosity has been eating at me since the last time I saw you.”

      Curious about what sex would have been like between them? Well, it wasn’t the most flattering explanation—he hadn’t claimed to have been pining away from her for seven years—but she appreciated it. Because it was honest. And because, if pressed, she would have to admit she’d been just as curious, for just as long.

      They’d come so close to being lovers once. Like a kid denied the one present she’d wanted every Christmas of her childhood, Emily had to wonder if the thing she hadn’t gotten might have been the greatest gift ever.

      “Are you offended? Because you shouldn’t be. I didn’t come here assuming it would be easy to seduce you.”

      “Does that mean you’re giving up?”

      “It means I’m going to try harder.”

      She laughed softly. So did he.

      “The truth is, I wasn’t taking this for granted,” he said, intent, earnest. “I wasn’t even sure if you were married or in a committed relationship, or if I’d come face-to-face with you and find that the chemistry was gone.”

      “I’m not.” She swallowed hard and added, “It’s not.”

      Chemistry. Heat. Attraction. They’d both felt all of the above from the day they’d met, not just after that night in the pool. She’d once believed it had been one-sided until that heated encounter, but now, looking back at those weeks through a woman’s eyes and remembering everything he’d said and done, she knew it hadn’t been.

      He’d been playing the gentleman—she understood that now. Holding her at arm’s length, teasing her, treating her like a kid sister, all because he’d been more interested in her than he wanted to be. Definitely more than Seth had wanted him to be.

      It didn’t explain why he’d never responded to her afterward, but some of her questions about how he’d felt when they’d been together had finally been answered. Those answers were enough to lessen the humiliation of what had happened. They also made her more confident in herself, in her sex appeal, in the torch she’d once carried for him.

      So, could she do it? Could she take what she hadn’t gotten back then? Was it even possible for her to be the kind of woman who casually hooked up with a guy? A guy who’d traveled across the country to take her to bed just because he’d been wondering what it would be like for so many years?

      “Yes,” she whispered, talking to herself, not to him.

      “Yes what?”

      She stopped dancing and looked up at him, noting the warmth in those green eyes and the intensity of his interest. She saw the desire she’d dreamed of recognizing on his handsome face, and she believed it was genuine.

      She could do it, and not have one regret.

      Emily wasn’t the reckless type. She’d never had a one-night stand. Maybe this would be her first—maybe tonight was all they’d have, all he was interested in. She felt a stab of sadness at the thought, but it was outweighed by pure excitement. She’d been waiting so long—far too long. She’d lost her virginity to the wrong man and had known nothing but wrong men ever since. Even if she only had him for one night, she was ready to finally have the right man.

      Decision made. She was going to take what she could get and not regret it later. It was time to be the wild, impulsive girl she’d been on her eighteenth birthday. She would have the man she wanted, store up as many memories as her heart could hold, and treasure them forever.

      Starting right now.

      “Em? What are you saying?”

      She took a deep breath, waiting for her heart to flutter with indecision, or her tongue to tangle up within her mouth.

      But her heartbeat was strong and steady, and the words came so very easily.

      “I’m saying yes, Rand. Just yes.”