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"Keep looking at me like that and we may not make it all the way to h her veins She used to drea her like this…until she’d nearly stopped dreaht in her stomach that had lifted when she was in his arms fell part of the way back into place She turned her face froain Especially since she could guess that Noah was a ardless of the risks

"Colbie?"

Only a coould continue to stare out theShe’d been a coward in Lake Tahoe and where had it gotten her? Wracked with desperate dreaain

She turned her face back to his just as he said, "I would never do anything to hurt you Do you believe o, Colbie had vowed never to trust anotheras she lived Not with her body And definitely not with her heart Which hy she had to be honest with Noah, regardless of how h she’d already proht

"I don’t know you And since it turns out I shouldn’t have trusted a ht I kneell, I have to ask myself--how can I trust you now?"

Noah responded to her honesty by picking up her hand and placing it over her heart, covering it with his "Right here" Now heher pal her feel the strong, steady beat of his heart "That’s e’re going to listen to tonight"

She thought he would kiss her again to really make his point, but he didn’t He simply brushed his other hand across her cheek and said, "Coet to know each other better--" His gaze darkened again, heating the car up at least ten degrees "--before I strip your clothes off and et out of the car after he said so like that?

Fortunately, he cas were less steady than ever in her heels When, she wondered, was the last ti even as simple as that? An everyday courtesy thather inside his stunning house, coet Sound

"Noah, your house is incredible"

Despite the huge s, it ar fancy box built to maximize the view rather than co in this house,up under a blanket to read on the couch

"I told my architect I wanted a place I could raise a faue idea of how much a waterfront house like this cost in Seattle, it had to be a heck of a lot more zeros than she’d ever seen

Slowly, she turned to him and asked, "Should I knoho you are?"

He drew her to hihter filled up all of her eo any favors"

Oh, how Colbie loved hearing hih There was such warmth in his joy Such pleasure, too Already, she found herself wanting h while they were riding bicycles around the lakeor while they were rolling around together on a bed, tickling and teasing each other

She already wanted hih the week she’d already waited for hi, now she wanted to know hier for another kiss

"Tell me about your family, Noah"

He moved into the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of cabernet It hat she’d been drinking at the bar, and she wondered how he’d even had a chance to notice as in her glass

Then again, he noticed everything, didn’t he?

He poured two glasses and brought theShe took the glass froreat They’ve been married thirty-five years and still live in San Francisco, where I grew up My sister Barbara lives there, too She’s two years older than me and used to beat the hell out of me ere kids"

Noah was at least six foot two, his shoulders were broad and his arms were obviously muscular even beneath his dress shirt "I can’t picture anyone being able to beat you up," Colbie said

"When you meet my sister and see that she’s barely five feet tall, you’ll think I was kidding," he said with a very disarrin, "but I used to call her Killer ere kids"

He was doing it again, talking to her as though what they were doing wasn’t just a one-night thing Not if you meet h she kneould be suard up to protect herself, she didn’t want to force herself to push it away this tiht with her eyes wide open, she wanted si arms

As he’d asked her to do on the mountain in Lake Tahoe, she wanted to close them and just feel

"What else do you want to know?" he asked, and she didn’t even need to think before answering, "Everything"