Page 37 of Getting Lucky in London

“On?”

I wavered. Telling him would make it final. He’d either accept my apology or reject it…me.

“You…me…us. Whether you’ll let me explain. I can’t live here knowing our—” I swallowed around the desert in my mouth. “That what happened between us might affect your friendship with Dominic.”

“It won’t.”

“Maybe not on your end, but Dominic…” A thought struck me hard. What was he doing here when Dominic was supposed to be in South Africa? “It’s not a coincidence you’re here, is it? That you just showed up here?”

“It isn’t,” he snapped. “I came to see you, though you certainly didn’t make it easy.”

“You’re mad.”Of course he’s mad. You knew he would be.

“Damn right, I am.” He stalked toward me. “You left without a word, as if what we shared, as ifImeant nothing to you.”

Despite the urge to back up, I stood my ground. “That’s not how it was.”

“How was it, then? Because that’s certainly how it felt.”

“I— Wait. You knew who I was?”

Some of the accusation in his stormy gray eyes disappeared, and a flush stained his cheeks. “Yes.”

“How long?”

“Long enough.”

I placed my hands on my hips. “Michael, how long did you know?”

He sighed. “Since the morning I found the keys.”

All the conversations after that moment, all the questions, his moodiness… “You were trying to get me to tell you?”

His lips thinned, and he quirked a brow. “Ya think?”

“I thought you were—” I bit my lip to keep it from quivering.

His expression softened, and he moved closer, almost but not quite touching me. He lifted my chin with a forefinger. “You thought I was what?”

“When you went off into your thoughts and got all quiet…” I closed my eyes, unwilling to let him see how much it hurt to say the words. “I thought you were ready to get rid of me.”

“Why would you think that?” He thumbed my cheek to wipe away a stray tear.

I opened my eyes. “Because I thought you were a player.”

“I wasn’t the one playing games or keeping secrets. Well, not in the beginning. But even after I knew who you were, it wasn’t a game. I thought if you really wanted to be with me, you’d tell me the truth.”

“I couldn’t, not in the beginning because I…” I lowered my gaze to stare at the logo on his T-shirt. “I used to have this big crush on you when you and Dominic were roommates. When you flirted with me at the exhibit, I thought I could finally act on all my, er, fantasies about you.”

He chuckled. “You had fantasies about me?”

My gaze flew to his, and relief poured through me. He wasn’t mad. I let myself smile for the first time since he arrived. “Yes, lots of them.”

“Hmm, we’ll have to examine those fantasies, but later.” He settled his hands on my hips. “You were saying?”

“Right.” Unsure what to do with my hands, I rested them on his biceps. “The first morning, I realized what I’d done, the mess I’d made. I was going to sneak out, but then I couldn’t find Dominic’s keys, and—”

“Thank God for that.”

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