Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

216 DANCING IN THE MOONLIGHT
She couldn’t seem to remember what her world had
been like before he crashed his way back into it.
Cold. Empty. Gray.
She jerked her eyes open to stare at the darkened
bowery, horrified and helpless as the truth seemed to pound
into her brain with the relentless force of a jackhammer.
She was in love with him.
Her stomach knotted, and she pressed her hand to her
mouth to hold in her instinctive moan.
What have you done now, Magdalena?
In love with Jake Dalton. How on earth had she let
such a thing happen? Didn’t she have better sense than
to allow herself to make such a drastic miscalculation?
Her hand curled into a fist over his heart and she wanted
to weep, but she screwed her eyes shut to hold in the tears.
Maybe she didn’t love him, she tried to rationalize.
Maybe she and her self-esteem had just been so battered
and bruised by life and her ex-fiancé’s rejection that she’d
turned to the first male who had paid her a little attention.
She discarded that theory as soon as it popped into
her mind. No. This was definitely love. It washed
through her, strong and powerful and undeniable.
Now what the heck was she supposed to do about it?
Oh, this would never do. She couldn’t bear another rejection.
Her poor heart would crack apart. But she didn’t
see any way for this to end in anything but disaster.
What did she have, anymore, to offer to a man like
him? He was strong and healthy and decent. And she
was a mess.
She stretched out her gimpy leg as those damn
phantom pains clawed at her.