Page 44 of The Healing Touch

No matter what their relationship might be right now, she was determined to make him understand how much people loved not his face, but the words he wrote. If only he’d read the hundreds of emails telling him how much his words had resonated with people. He’d know that, yes, he was gorgeous eye candy, but it was his books that kept his readers around.

“You think they have carts or something we can use to haul this inside?” Dimitri pulled her out of her quiet determination with his aggravated question. He was staring at the mess in the Jeep with a bit of fear. His legs had to be killing him. He’d been limping when he got out of the vehicle. Realizing it, he’d straightened his spine and ignored the pain.

Idiot.

He should know better than to ignore his body’s warning signs. Pain was a clear indicator he needed to slow down and rest, but he was too much the macho man to ever admit he was anything less than the big, strong man he portrayed.

Idiot.

“I planned for this.” Pushing him aside, she dug around until she found the two rolling carts she’d bought and had shipped to the hotel as well. Thank God she’d had the good sense to put them together while he’d been out running from her feelings. She pulled them out and set them up. “See? We can load everything onto these and roll them into the building.”

“I would never have thought of this.” He looked impressed. Of course, he wouldn’t have. He’d never been to one of these things, and he never concerned himself with researching them or even bothering to read the countless emails he’d gotten. Stupid ass.

By the time they were done, everything was loaded onto the carts, aside from what had to be carried. Becca looked out over the parking lot. People were everywhere. Her eyes zeroed in on the entrance where even more people milled about. Her palms started to sweat. How was she going to do this? Her heartbeat was already speeding up with only the people hanging out at the entrance.

Nope, she couldn’t do this. Nope, nope, nope.

Dimitri’s fingers twined with hers, and he pulled her close, his breath tickling her ear. “Easy,Krasivaya. We don’t need to go in until you’re ready.”

And he’d stand here all night if that was what it took. She knew it and appreciated it, but did she appreciate it enough to force herself to willingly walk into a crowded building and risk a panic attack so severe it might hospitalize her?

“I could kiss you until you’re so distracted you don’t even realize you’re in a crowd.”

“What? No!” She turned to face him. “You will do no such thing!”

“Why not?” He sounded so serious. “I want to kiss you.”

“Well, you can’t.” He really needed to stop this nonsense. He was driving her crazy with all the mood swings. One minute he wanted her, friendship be damned, the next he was running away from her because of how she felt about him. The man needed to make up his damn mind.

“Again, why not?” His arm snaked out, snatching her to him. “You want to kiss me, don’t you, Becca?”

“I…” Her mouth went dry at the heat and intensity in his gaze. She wanted to kiss him very badly, but she knew it wasn’t in her best interest to give in to all that heat.

“You know you want to, sweetheart, so why fight it?” He leaned closer until his lips were a mere whisper away. “Kiss me.”

She shoved him, her heart pounding from the need to do just as he’d asked. Instead of doing what she wanted, she grabbed the handle of the cart and started pulling it toward the building, not even registering all the people she’d passed.

The exhibitor space was massive and one of the largest venues on Dimitri’s signing schedule. She’d worked hard to get him a spot here. No way was he ducking out. She stopped and took out her phone so she could pull up the email with his table number. They’d switched his table after she’d convinced Sheila it might be better so no one would be pissed if his lines interrupted their tables. He was table number five along the right wall. It was easy to find, and she took a minute once she’d found it and parked her cart beside it.

Holy hell. She’d done it. She’d walked in through all those people and not panicked at all.

That asshole. She loved him. He’d distracted her so much, she hadn’t thought about the crowds or how they made her feel. Her only thoughts had been about him and kissing him and…she laughed.

“See?” he said softly. “All you need to do is not think about it.”

She jumped, not expecting him to be that close, but she should have known he’d be right behind her. He wouldn’t let her go into this mess alone.

“Sneaky bastard.”

He laughed. “It worked, though.”

Well, ithadworked. No denying that. She knew if she let herself look around, all that work would be lost. She could hear everyone, feel the heat rising in the room from all the bodies packed into it. Best to just set the table up and get the hell out.

She directed Dimitri to work on getting his banners set up while she put the wooden rack together so she could start arranging his books in it. The wooden one had been more expensive, but she liked it better than the wire ones.

After a minute, she heard him swearing in Russian. Score one for the banners. At least she wasn’t the only one whose ass those things kicked.

“Really, D. It’s just a banner.”

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