Dancing in the Dark

Until now.

She bit back a moan.

Every eye had been on her. The entire restaurant had watched her embarrassment, watched her endless walk to the door in defeat.

“Wendy.”

Her hand flew to her throat. She whirled around and saw Seth stepping out of the shadows.

Despair, rage, humiliation...a dozen emotions swept through her. Seth was the cause of them all.

“Get away from me!”

“Wendy, please. I know you’re upset—”

“Upset? Why would I be upset? Just because you made me look like a fool?”

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t give a damn if you’re sorry or not.”

Seth’s hands clamped onto her shoulders. He stepped around her and planted himself in her path.

“Grow up,” he said roughly. “You’re the one who came to my table. You’re the one who caused a difficult situation to get worse.”

“What I did was grown-up. You behaved like a—a spoiled child.”

Seth’s hands tightened on her. “I knew you were there.”

“That’s why I went to your table. I just wanted—”

“From the minute you walked into the restaurant and all through dinner, I sensed you. Damn it, don’t look at me that way. Is it so crazy to think I wouldn’t know you were near me?” His mouth thinned. “But I concentrated on Jo. It was the right thing to do.”

“How nice for you both,” Wendy said with a polite smile. “Now, please, get out of my way.”

“I didn’t dare look at you. I knew I’d never stop looking, once our eyes met.”

“You know what, Seth? There are names for a man who takes one woman to dinner and—and comes on to another.” Wendy peered past him. “Where’s your girlfriend? What excuse did you give for leaving her in your truck while you came after me?”

“Jo left. She came in her own car.”

“Well, be sure and tell her I didn’t mean to upset her and that she doesn’t have to run when she sees me. The field’s clear. It has been for a long time.”

“Damn it, Wendy!” Seth’s eyes were dark with anger. “Will you listen to me?” He took a deep breath. “The reason I was less than gracious when you showed up was because of Jo.”

“Really?” Wendy said sweetly.

“She’s a wonderful woman.”

“Terrific.”

“She’s kind and generous and—”

“And she loves animals. You know what, Seth? I’m not very interested in a rundown on her character.”

“She cares for me. A lot. And...” He took a breath. “And I just broke up with her.”

“That’s too damned...” Wendy’s eyes widened. “You what?”

Seth let go of her and ran his hands through his hair, something she recalled him doing whenever he was upset.

“That’s what you walked in on,” he said grimly, “me taking half the meal to work up enough courage to tell her so long, stay well, it’s been nice but it’s over. I’d gotten just past that point when you came along.”

Wendy sagged back against the brick wall. A spurt of elation swept through her, followed quickly by the knowledge that it was wrong to feel anything but compassion for a woman she didn’t know and a man who’d once been her lover.

“I’m sorry. I had no idea...”

“She wanted...she wanted more commitment than I could give. She deserves better than that. It had become an issue and we’d been drifting apart.” It was close enough to the truth. Seth wasn’t sure what had gone wrong; he only knew that saying any more would be saying too much. “And then I got to the worst part, where I told Jo that I thought it would be best if we stopped seeing each other. I looked up and there you were, big as life, standing next to the table.”

“Seth.” Wendy put her hand on his sleeve. “I’m so sorry. I just wanted to do the right thing. I mean, I saw you and—and Joanne, and I thought about how we’d probably keep tripping over each other and that I couldn’t run away each time....”

She stopped, caught her breath as she realized what she was saying, how much she was saying, but it didn’t matter. Seth hadn’t been listening. He was looking at her in a way that made her heartbeat quicken.

“Nine years,” he said. “Nine long, endless years you stayed out of my life, and all of a sudden, here you are.”

“I came back to Cooper’s Corner, not to you.”

“Every time I turn around, you’re there.”

“Every time you turn around?” Wendy’s chin came up. “Don’t think you can lay this on me! I didn’t come bursting into your house. I didn’t follow you to the Burger Barn. And tonight, when I tried to do the...the polite thing—”

“Aren’t you going to ask me what Jo said when I told her we weren’t going to see each other anymore?”

“I am not! Frankly, I don’t much—”

“She said, ‘Is it because of Wendy Monroe? Is it because she’s back and you never got over her?’”

“I hope you told her the truth. I’d hate to think you used me as an excuse to break up with the woman.”

Seth closed his hands around her wrists. “You are some piece of work, you know that?”

“Let go.”

“You think you’re the only one whose world turned upside down when you took that fall? I’ve got news for you, lady. My world took a pretty bad hit, too, but you never gave a damn about that.”

“Okay. That’s enough. I don’t have to stand here and listen to this garbage!”

Wendy pulled free and started toward the restaurant. Seth went after her, caught her arm and turned her toward him.

“You want to get on with your life? Well, so do I. But I can’t. And if you’re honest, you’ll admit that you can’t, either.” He moved closer to her, his shoulders blocking out the night, this man who had once been her lover but who had become a stranger. “That’s what I told Jo. I said I didn’t know what in hell I felt for you, but my life has to be on hold until I find out.”

Wendy was trembling. From the cold, she told herself, surely not from the feel of Seth’s hands, from the emotions she could see warring in his eyes.

“We need to settle things, Wendy.”

“We did settle things.” Her voice was a papery whisper and she cleared her throat and started again. “We broke up.”

“No,” he said bitterly, “we didn’t break up. You broke us up.”

“It’s the same thing.”

“The hell it is! When you left Cooper’s Corner, you were my girl. Then you took that fall and you didn’t want to know me.” His hands tightened on her. He stepped closer, cupped her elbows, drew her to him. “I’ve waited a long time for answers, but, by God, I’m going to get them.”

“The answers you want belong to the past.”

“That’s the trouble,” he said gruffly. “I don’t know what’s in the past and neither do you.”

“You’re wrong—”

“Am I?”

She saw the warning flash in his eyes and she put her hands up to ward him off, but his mouth came down on hers, hard and hungry, just as it used to on those hot nights in his cold truck up on Sawtooth Mountain, and even as she told herself she didn’t want this, she felt the need for him ignite deep inside her.

He felt it, too. She knew he did, because his mouth softened on hers and his kiss became tender and sweet, and suddenly she was eighteen and he was nineteen, and nothing mattered but each other.

She trembled, moaned Seth’s name. He groaned, thrust his fingers into her hair, kissed her again and again, and she opened her mouth to his, caught up in the moment, in the memory, in a dream.

Somewhere in the distance, a door opened and closed. Voices carried on the still night air. “Good n

ight,” people called. “Drive safely.” Footsteps crunched on the snow-crusted pavement.

“Come with me,” Seth whispered against Wendy’s mouth. “Sweetheart, come with me.”

“Wendy? Wendy? Where are you?”

Lost, Wendy thought. Oh God, I’m lost!

“Wendy? Are you out here?”

“My mother,” she gasped, twisting her face away from Seth’s.

“I don’t care.” His voice was thick with desire. “Come with me.”

“I can’t.”