And staggered.
She put her hands against his shoulders. He let her down; her feet touched the floor, but he kept his arms around her and leaned his forehead against hers.
“Fine thing when a guy tries to make like Clark Gable and ends up like Dudley Do-Right.”
She wanted to laugh. She wanted to cry. She wanted to hate him, but she couldn’t. The best she seemed capable of was standing within the circle of his arms and framing his face with her hands.
“You stole my restaurant.”
It was the least of what he’d stolen, which made it the safest accusation to make.
“It’s your restaurant, or it will be, if you’ll accept it.”
“Mine?”
“Yours.” He raised his head, smiled into her eyes, then dipped his mouth to hers for another kiss. “Did I get the name right? Basic Elegance?”
“Yes.”
“Good. That’s settled. We can move on to more important things,” he said, and kissed her again.
“Don’t keep doing that,” she whispered, a little breathlessly, “or I’m liable to forget all the reasons that I hate you.”
“You don’t hate me,” he said, with that arrogant confidence that drove her crazy. “You love me.”
“I don’t love you.”
“Of course you love me.” He smiled, used his thumbs to wipe away her tears. “Not as much as I love you, because nobody can love anybody as much as I love you, Duchess, but we both know that you love me.”
What was the sense in denying it? Lissa decided she wasn’t even going to try.
“You changed your phone number,” she said.
Nick frowned. “Beverly changed it, you mean. And forgot to mention it to me. I didn’t even realize it had been changed. I just kept getting calls, but I had no idea they were coming to a new number.” A muscle jumped in his jaw. “And I had no idea why there weren’t any calls from you.”
“When did you figure it out?”
“When I became impossible to deal with, when all I talked about was the fact that you hadn’t contacted me, Beverly suddenly said, oh, she’d changed my number and maybe that was the reason.”
“Beverly,” Lissa said.
“Uh oh.”
“Uh oh, indeed. I can’t hold it against her for being gorgeous and for waiting for you to come back to her, but—”
“She’s my publicity rep.”
“Your what?”
“Bev handles my publicity. She’s furious at me for disappearing, for never taking any of her endless calls and for not contacting her, but she’s accustomed to a little chaos in her life. Heck, when you have four kids and a writer husband who never tells you what he’s doing from one day to the next—”
“Are we talking about the same Beverly? The one who looks at you as if you’re a bowl of whipped cream?”
Nick grinned. “She looks at me as if I’m her major client, and I am.” He raised Lissa’s face to his. “But the only woman I want thinking of me as a bowl of whipped cream, sweetheart, is you.”
“Nick. I have so many questions…”
“Ask them.”