Sleepless in Manhattan (From Manhattan with Love 1)

There was a pause as he scanned the skyline. “The problem is that I don’t want a million women—I want her,” he said. “And she’s scared of relationships. She’s not good at trusting, so I’m taking it slowly.”

Something in his tone made her glance at him sharply, but he’d slid the sunglasses back onto his nose and she could no longer see his eyes.

Frankie frowned, confused.

Surely he wasn’t saying...?

He didn’t mean...?

Crap.

A delicious, terrifying excitement ripped through her. She went from envy to euphoria. She was filled with an equal amount of joy and heat. Matt was interested in her. Her. She was the woman. The thought made her dizzy with elation. Her palms felt sticky and her heart pounded like the drums in a rock band.

And then it dawned on her that if he knew she was interested, and he was also interested, the next logical step would be to take things to the next level. That would be what he was expecting. That was what normal people did, wasn’t it? That was the reason he was telling her how he felt. And if they took things to the next level...

Reality poked its way through the joy, puncturing her elation like a needle pressed against a child’s balloon.

Elation gave way to pure panic.

“On second thought, forget it. You want to stay away from—from relationships that are c-complicated.” She was stammering, tripping over her words. Stay away from me. “Too much trouble. Seriously, Matt, don’t go there.”

Admiring someone from a safe distance was one thing. When you thought that they weren’t interested and that it could never go anywhere it was a safe hobby. But this—this was different. It was like admiring a dangerous tiger in a zoo and suddenly realizing that someone had removed the glass between you. There was nothing stopping him coming close.

Up until this moment she’d had no inkling that he was interested in her, but now she knew that he was it changed everything.

It made the impossible possible, and she found the possible terrifying.

“I’ve never been afraid of complicated, Frankie. I’ve never been the kind of guy who thinks something worth having has to be easy to get.”

“Well, you should be afraid.” Breathe, Frankie. In and out. In and out. “Complicated is bad. If it’s complicated, maybe you should rethink. You deserve to find someone special. A nice, dependable, uncomplicated, sweet girl who isn’t going to mess you around.”

She articulated each word carefully, her tone transmitting the message: And that’s not me.

“Frankie—”

“And talking of working on a plan—that’s what I’m doing now. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

She stepped back from him, tripped over a bag of cement, and virtually sprinted towards the stairs that led from the roof to the top floor of the house.

No way was she going to let this go any further. Not just because she believed that all relationships were doomed, but because it would be impossible to get closer to Matt without him discovering all the things about herself she made a point of keeping secret.

Because he knew about the glasses, he thought he knew her. What he didn’t know was that the glasses were just the tip of the iceberg...