Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

RAEANNE THAYNE
221
For Jake, anyway, and somehow that seemed far, far
worse.
The couldn’t do this. She couldn’t!
Despising her cowardice but helpless to overcome it,
she jerked away from him, nearly falling off the chaise in
her hurry to escape. She couldn’t bear the idea of him
seeing her, of being open and exposed in front of him. She
knew what she looked like without her clothes. Horrible.
She wouldn’t be able to survive if he turned away from her.
She scrambled to stand, holding on to the frame of
the other chair until she could balance. Her shirt hung
open and she leaned a hip against the chair for support
so her fingers could work the buttons, but they fumbled
as if the buttons were ten times larger than the holes they
had to fit into.
“I’m sorry. I can’t…I’m not…” She closed her eyes.
“It’s late. We should both be in bed.”
She couldn’t see his eyes in the moonlight but she
could feel the heat of emotions vibrating off him.
“Dammit, Maggie,” he growled. “What happened?”
She gave up on the last few buttons and just held her
shirt closed with her fist. “Nothing. I’m sorry.”
He stood. With his shirt off, his skin gleamed in the
moonlight. She had to curl her other hand into a fist at
her side to keep from reaching for him, and she finally
had to jerk her gaze away, miserable with herself.
“Why did you stop me? You wanted that as much as
I did. Don’t bother to lie and pretend you didn’t.”
Knowing he was right, knowing she deserved his
anger, she faced him without words, still breathing hard.
She wanted to die, to curl up into a ball and disappear.