Lovescenes

. ‘It is good,* he said, spooning up a bit and offering it to her. ‘Taste.’

Shannon opened her mouth and Cade slipped the spoon between her lips.

‘Delicious,’ she said.

‘Thank you, ma’am. Careful there—don’t waste any.’ She laughed as he reached out and touched his finger to her lip. ‘You missed a bit of bacon,’ he said…

And sud­denly the space between them became charged with elec­tricity.

She saw the sudden darkening of his eyes, heard her own uneven breath, felt the rapid thud of her heart. Move away from him, she told herself, but her legs wouldn’t obey

He touched his hand to her cheek. ‘Shannon...’

‘The toast,’ she said thickly.

‘Shannon, please...’

‘Don’t,’ she whispered.

‘I can read the truth in your eyes,’ he said, running his knuckles lightly along her jaw. ‘Why do you keep pretending?’

‘The toast is burning, Cade. Let me...’

She thought that he wasn’t going to let her past him. His eyes were dark slits and a muscle tensed in his cheek. Then he nodded and dropped his hand to his side.

She walked to the table and busied herself with buttering the toast and pouring the coffee, until at last she heard him begin to move around the room again.

How was she going to get through this? The thought of food made her throat close. But she would eat, at least a little, just enough so Cade would ask her no questions, and they’d have a friendly cup of coffee and then he’d leave and she’d be safe.

‘The eggs look great,’ she said politely, sitting down opposite him.

His smile was equally polite. ‘The coffee’s terrific.’

Her hand trembled as she lifted a forkful of omelet. ‘This is... is very good,’ she said, amazed she’d been able to chew and swallow at all. ‘Would you like some toast?’ .

She lifte

d the plate and held it out to him. As he reached for it, their fingers touched and the plate slipped free and fell to the table.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said quickly. ‘That was clumsy of me.’

‘Shannon...’

‘I’ll wipe up those crumbs.’

‘Damn it, Shannon,’ he said roughly. ‘You can’t keep running away—you’re going to have to deal with this sooner or later.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said, shoving back her chair and getting quickly to her feet.

His hand shot out and caught hers as she tried to move past him.

‘Yes, you do,’ he growled. ‘You damned well do.’

‘Let go,’ she said stiffly.

‘You can’t keep pretending nothing’s happening,’ he said, his fingers wrapping tightly around her wrist. ‘You’ve got to face it some time.’

‘You’d better leave, Cade,’ she said in a breathy voice. ‘We had such a nice day together—don’t ruin it.’