Page 102 of All I Want for Christmas… Is You
“If you’d just give me a chance, I—”
“No. I know my own mind, Oliver. I don’t…I can’t ever think of you that way. You’ll only ever be my friend, nothing more.” Dinah sank her teeth into her lower lip until she tasted blood on her tongue. If it felt like a lie—as if she were lying to him and to herself—it would pass soon enough. All that mattered was the thing was done, and there was no reason for them to ever speak of love or marriage again.
“I don’t believe you.”
Dinah’s gaze shot to Oliver’s face. “You what? What do you mean, you don’t believe me?”
“Just what I said. I don’t believe you see me as only your friend.” Oliver regarded her with cool blue eyes. “There’s no shame in being afraid, Dinah, but don’t be a coward.”
“I’m not a coward!” Dinah stamped her foot on the floor of the carriage and the puppy jump aside with a startled yelp. “I’m not…I don’t desire you, Oliver. Is that so difficult for you to believe?”
Oliver leaned forward and pinned her with stormy blue eyes. “Yes, because I’ve seen the way you look at me. I’ve seen the way your eyes darken when I take your hand to assist you from the carriage. I’ve felt the pulse in your wrist flutter madly against my thumb when I touch you, and I’ve heard your breath catch when I smile at you.”
Dinah stared into his eyes, and for a long, terrifying moment she wondered if she’d ever find the strength to tear her gaze away. “You’re seeing what you want to see, that’s all.”
He sighed, as if he were disappointed in her. “You’re such a dreadful liar.”
She raised a hand to her throat, but then snatched it back again when she felt the frenzied flutter of her pulse, the swift rise and fall of her chest. “I’m not lying.”
“Oh?” Oliver leaned threw a casual arm across the back of his seat, but his blue eyes were glittering with frustration. “Prove it.”
Dinah sucked in a breath. “That’s absurd! How am I meant to prove it?”
But she knew, even before he opened his mouth, she knew…
A dimple flashed at the corner of Oliver’s lips, but his smile was grim. “Kiss me.”
* * *
Oliver’s gazeroamed slowly over her, noting the flush of color on her cheeks and throat, her parted lips and hectic breaths, the way her pupils swallowed the blue of her eyes.
He might be a fool in love, but he wasn’t blind.
She could reject his proposals. She could deny she loved him and try and persuade them both she never could. She could refuse to marry him and banish him from her presence forever.
But nothing—nothingshe said would ever convince him she didn’t desire him.
He’d never been in love before, and God knew he’d made a mess of it thus far. But Oliver knew desire when he saw it, and he’d had quite enough of this nonsense. “Well, Dinah? What are you waiting for? Prove to me you don’t want me, and I’ll never speak of it again.”
Dinah crossed her arms over her chest. “Your…this is ridiculous.”
Oliver raised an eyebrow. “Is that a refusal?”
“I don’t have to prove anything to you,” Dinah muttered, her lips turned down.
“Of course not,” Oliver agreed. “But it would be an ideal way to silence me on this subject.”
She glanced at him then looked quickly away, her cheeks coloring. Oliver waited, his heart pounding in his chest as indecision wrestled with stubborn pride on her face.
He’d just about given up hope when she held out her hand.
Oliver took it. He could feel her slender body trembling like a reed in the wind as he urged her gently down into the seat beside him. They turned toward each other, the promise of the moment swelling between them, but Dinah’s head was down, her gaze on her lap.
“Look at me, Dinah,” Oliver murmured huskily, tilting her head up with a touch of his thumb to her chin.
She swallowed, her long, graceful throat moving as her dark blue eyes met his.
Oliver ached to gather her into his arms and take her lips with his, but he didn’t do either of those things. He’d bared his heart to her. He’d offered her his love, his devotion, his life, and she’d rejected him.
