The Moment of Truth

“Put him down a second,” Dana said, looking delicious enough to eat in the faded jeans and blue sweater coat she was wearing. “See if he’ll take it.”

The puppy picked up the carrot. Tossed it. Pounced on it. And sent it rolling a couple of inches.

“Try this.” She handed him an apple slice.

L.G. was more interested in playing with the carrot. “What do we do if he doesn’t eat them?”

“I brought some fish oil to put on his dog food.” She put a Baggie of caplets on the table. “And for immediate relief—like during the night if he keeps you up—here’s some vitamin E ointment.”

He looked up from where he squatted on the ground next to the dog, and stared.

She tucked a loose strand of hair into the ponytail she always wore. “What?”

“You know a lot.”

“Only about some things.”

“Whatever the problem is, you seem to have a solution.”

“Not always.” She laughed. He was making her self-conscious.

He liked knowing he had an effect on her. His gaze met hers. She stopped laughing.

“You’re a beautiful woman, Dana Harris.” The words came from deep within him. Not the superficial place from which compliments for women usually sprang, but from someplace different. Untapped, until now.

“I’m just ordinary,” she said, avoiding his gaze.

Picking up the puppy, Dana set him on the kitchen counter and opened the tube of ointment. She started rubbing the cream into L.G.’s skin.

“You’re kidding, right?” he said. “There’s nothing ordinary about you.”

Michelle, and the dozens of other women he’d been with over the past ten or twelve years—they’d been ordinary.

“Don’t, Josh.” She frowned.

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t flatter me.”

“You think I’m lying about how attractive I find you?”

Putting the puppy back down on the floor, she screwed the cap back on the ointment and faced him. “I know I’m nothing special in the looks department,” she said.

From where he was standing, she was beautiful. Real. Curvy in the right places. With long hair that he could get tangled up in, rather than hair that was perfectly styled to only look like he could get tangled up in it.

She had skin that didn’t need makeup to look milky and smooth. Eyes that were big enough to stand out on their own...

Eyes that had real pain in them.

He took her hand. “I’m not flattering you, Dana Harris,” he said softly. “I think you’re hot as hell. There’s nothing artificial about you. Nothing. We haven’t even kissed and I’ve never wanted anyone more....”

“You...want me?”

An alarm went off in his brain. He hadn’t said that. He couldn’t let anyone need him. Not when he was living a duplicitous life. Not when he was hurting his parents. And had an ex-fiancée confined to a bed in Boston.

But right then, as Dana’s big blue eyes pleaded with him for something he didn’t understand, he knew he had to do what he could to give it to her.

This wasn’t about him.

She gave so much. And asked for so little.

Acting completely on instinct, Josh pulled her slowly forward, until her body was touching his, holding her gaze the entire time.

Her eyes grew wide, but there was no fear there. Or hesitation, either.

She wanted him to kiss her. He’d been around enough to know.

So he did. Lightly. Touching his lips to hers. Just to say hello.

Mmm. A long hello. Her mouth opened, inviting him in. And he went. Sensation exploded throughout his entire body. Sexual desire. And more. His penis got hard, but he was driven to hold her as strongly as he wanted to make love to her.

His gut lurched. His chest got hot, from the inside out.

And he quit thinking at all.

* * *

HIS KISS WAS BETTER than any fantasy she’d ever had. Josh tasted different. Sweet and minty and...God he could kiss. The mastery with which he guided her tongue, the gentle way he explored her mouth...

He was her knight in shining armor. The one. He could ride away with her into the sunset and she wouldn’t say no.

He took her into the living room instead.

She’d never been like her sisters, someone who took sex casually. But then she’d never had the most gorgeous man in the world interested in her.

When Josh led her to his couch and took her fully into his arms, she went willingly. Eagerly.

She wasn’t going to have sex with him. Getting carried away to the point of throwing caution to the wind wasn’t her style.

But she couldn’t resist the chance to connect with him. To know what his touch felt like. To feel him.

He pulled his lips from hers and that look in his big blue eyes, the one that had struck her the first time she’d seen him, grabbed her anew. The man had demons and was fighting his way out.