Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

RAEANNE THAYNE
141
ment and the physical and emotional pain that went
along with it.
She had told him in no uncertain terms that she
wasn’t at all interested in a relationship. And if she
were, he knew he likely wouldn’t even make the list of
possible contenders.
He could change her mind. She wasn’t immune to
him—her response to his kiss had been real and unfeigned.
But a physical reaction was one thing; a softening
of her heart against him and his parentage was
something else entirely.
She had asked him several times to leave her alone.
The decent thing, the honorable road, would be to
respect her words and wishes—to back off and give her
time to deal with her new disability and the challenges
she faced now, before he worked any harder at
overcoming those barriers she had constructed
between them.
He rubbed a hand across his chest, though he
couldn’t massage away the ache there at the thought of
distancing himself from her. In a very short time, he had
become addicted to her presence—to her sharp wit and
her courage and those rare, incredible smiles.
Too addicted. He couldn’t stay away from her, he
realized, even though he had a grim feeling he was only
setting himself up for deeper heartache.
She had no idea how long she slept on the sofa, but
when she woke, the house was dark and there was no
sign of Jake. In the moonlight filtering through the
blinds she could make out her mother’s slight form in