Passion Play

“Wait a minute. I can call Iris to let her know you arrived safely, if you’d like. You have a lot to do.”

“That would be great. Give her my best, and tell her I’ll call her in the morning.”

Lily kept Rose on the phone a while longer asking what seemed like unnecessary questions. Rose grew anxious to end their call.

Then a knock on the door startled Rose. “Lil, there’s someone at the door. I’ll check in with you tomorrow. I’d better go now. Take care.”

Once she’d ended the call with her sister, Rose went to the door, leaning in to look through the security peephole. She gasped when she recognized the person on the other side of her door. Her pulse kicked up. She couldn’t catch her breath.

Rose freed the locks, then pulled open her door. She blinked, but Donovan didn’t disappear. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

“Is that any way to greet a friend?” He arched an eyebrow at her. On him, the expression was too sexy for words.

Rose was frozen to the spot. She still couldn’t catch her breath. Why was this happening now? She wanted to see him, to talk with him, but she needed more time to prepare.

“What are you doing here?” Her gaze ate him up. In his casual dark slacks and jewel-toned polo shirt, he looked like an ad for a wicked weekend.

His hazel eyes moved over her face as though he hadn’t seen her in years rather than weeks. “We need to talk, Rose. May I come in?”

“Van, that wouldn’t be a good idea.” Rose swallowed hard, remembering the king-size bed that dominated the room behind her. “How did you know which room I was in?”

“I had a little help from Lily.”

Rose’s confusion cleared. Now she understood why Lily had asked her room number and kept her on the phone for so long. A good sister would have warned her. “Both of my sisters seem very fond of you.”

“I like them, too.”

“Good. Tell them I said hello when you get back to Columbus.” Rose started to close the door. She needed more time.

Donovan pushed against it to keep it open. “Rose, please. Just give me five minutes of your time.” He made a show of looking up and down the hallway. “You don’t want to cause a scene for your classmates, do you?”

Donovan had a point. She didn’t want her classmates to see her and her ex–pretend boyfriend engaged in a shoving match with her hotel door. The idea of inviting him into a room with a king-size bed didn’t sit well with her, but it was the lesser of two evils. Her time was up. Rose stood back to let him in.

“Thank you.” Donovan strode past her, tempting her with his scent.

Rose locked the door, then turned to face him. The room didn’t seem as spacious anymore.

“Please say what you have to say, then leave.” Rose crossed her arms, trying to keep her anxiety from spreading. “Although I don’t know what you have to say that’s so important that you had to drive to Ann Arbor rather than pick up the phone.”

“I’m in love with you.”

The air rushed out of Rose’s lungs. The blood drained from her head. She locked her knees to keep from collapsing onto the floor. “What?”

Donovan closed the distance between them. He held her upper arms and stared down into her face. “I drove three hours so that I could tell you in person that I’m in love with you, Rose Beharie.”

Rose stepped back from his embrace. She needed room to think. Her legs shook as she walked past him, then dropped onto the bed. She studied the thin gray carpet as she struggled to gather her thoughts. “You can’t be in love with me. We were pretending to be in love.”

“I know the difference between real and make-believe, Rose. When you told me you didn’t want to see me anymore, the pain I felt was very real.”

Rose looked up at him. She remembered her own pain when she made that decision. “But we’ve only known each other three months.”

&nbs

p; Donovan took a step toward her. “And how long do we need to be together before we admit what we already know?”

She’d lived with Benjamin for two years before she’d realized their relationship wasn’t about love. It was about something far less romantic: Benjamin and his needs. After three months, she was more in love Donovan than she’d ever been with Benjamin.

“I want to believe that this will last.” Her eyes sought his.