Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

RAEANNE THAYNE
147
At last she slid under the cool and welcoming
lavender quilt in her bedroom, everything aching.
Despite her physical exhaustion, sleep seemed far away
as she lay in her narrow childhood bed gazing at the softpastel
walls and listening to the rain outside the window.
She couldn’t seem to force her mind away from Jake
and the afternoon and evening in his company.
How would she ever face him again? Bad enough
she’d responded to his kiss again with an eagerness that
mortified her. She then compounded the humiliation by
blubbering all over him.
And as if all that wasn’t enough, she’d fallen asleep
on the man. Literally. She must have fallen asleep in his
arms. She could remember him holding her during her
storm of tears, and then everything seemed a vast blank
until she woke and found her mother there.
Well, it had taken the most embarrassing evening of
her life, but maybe she’d finally accomplished her goal
of keeping him away from her. She couldn’t imagine he
would want anything more to do with her after tonight’s
turbulent mood swings.
What sane man would?
She was relieved, she told herself. If he left on his
own, she wouldn’t have to keep trying to bolster her
sagging determination to push him away. Heaven
knows, she certainly wasn’t succeeding very well in
that department on her own. When she was with him,
she couldn’t seem to remember all the reasons she
should stay away.
She had wanted him to kiss her again. She pressed a
hand to her stomach, remembering the slow heat churning