A Valentine Kiss. Christy McKellen

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СКАЧАТЬ glasses next to it. A variety of the foods that she hadn’t had time to taste accompanied the wine.

      Although she really didn’t want to, she found herself softening even more, her heart racing now for completely different reasons than a man expressing interest in her.

      ‘Are you going to stay or run?’

      She looked up at him, and though his words sounded playful, his expression told her otherwise.

      ‘Are those my only two options?’

      ‘I could offer you another.’

      She saw the change in his eyes and her body heated.

      ‘What would you do if I ran?’ she asked, hoping to distract him.

      ‘I’d run with you.’

      She resisted the urge to smile at his charm, and wondered why someone like Jordan Thomas would be interested in her? First, she was his employee. And second, she didn’t have much to offer him. What could a woman with no family and no foundation offer a man like Jordan Thomas of the Thomas Vineyard?

      Still, she found herself saying, ‘Pour me a glass of wine, Jordan.’

      He handed her a glass with a smile that had her shaking her head.

      ‘You don’t agree with my methods?’

      ‘You mean lying to get me to share a drink with you?’

      ‘Yes.’ He grinned. ‘But you can’t tell me this isn’t a welcome change to having to run around all day?’

      ‘No, I can’t.’ She sighed, and took a sip from her wine. ‘Drinking wine after a long day with a handsome man should be the only way to unwind.’

      She didn’t realise what she’d said until she saw him smiling at her, and then she blushed furiously.

      Where had that come from?

      ‘I didn’t mean—’

      ‘To tell me I’m handsome?’

      She set her wine down. ‘Yes. It’s been a long day.’

      ‘So I could ask you anything now and you would answer it?’

      ‘Maybe,’ she said softly, caught by the expression in his eyes.

      And then she wondered who this person who was flirting with this gorgeous man was. Because surely it couldn’t be tame, safe Mila. How often had she heard those comments from boys she had dated? From her foster siblings, who’d had no interest in hanging out with a girl who couldn’t bring herself to try drugs or go out drinking every night, no matter how desperately she’d wanted to be liked?

      She closed her eyes at the pain, and picked up her wine glass again. It must have been the stress of the event that had her thinking about a past she’d thought she’d left behind.

      But before she could drink her wine, Jordan took the glass out of her hand and she froze.

      ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’ he asked her, and she realised he was a lot closer than he’d been a few moments ago. Her throat dried at the woodsy smell that filled her senses, and suddenly she wished she hadn’t flirted with him.

      ‘No,’ she answered quickly, her breathing becoming more heavy than she thought could be healthy.

      ‘Good. That makes this much easier.’

      ‘What are you talking about?’ She couldn’t take her eyes off him, and knew she should be worried that the realisation only caused the slightest bit of alarm in her.

      ‘Us.’ He pulled the clip out of her hair so that it fell to her shoulders. ‘I’m glad you won’t have to break another man’s heart so that we can be together.’

      ‘That’s presumptuous of you,’ she replied, though for the life of her, she couldn’t think of one reason why that was a problem. Even when he had her speaking her mind without the filter she usually employed with every word.

      He didn’t respond immediately, and she wondered if she’d said something wrong.

      And then her heart stopped completely when his hand stilled on her neck and he said, ‘It should be. Everything inside me is saying that feeling this way about someone without even knowing them is crazy. And yet I can’t help myself.’

      His hand moved to her face, and she thought that even if the sky fell down on them she wouldn’t be able to look away from him.

      ‘So tell me whether I’m being presumptuous when I say I know you feel it, too?’

      She couldn’t speak because the pieces that had been floating around in her head since they’d met—and the feelings that had become unsettled the moment he’d introduced himself—told her there was truth to his words.

      ‘You did all of this to...to see if I felt the same way?’

      ‘No.’ He smiled, and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. ‘I did this to make you realise that you did.’

      ‘Jordan, I—’

      His lips were suddenly on hers, and she felt herself melt, felt her resistance—her denial—fade away. Because as his mouth moved against hers, her heart was telling her that it wanted to be with him. She ignored the way her mind told her she was being ridiculous, and instead ran her hands over the muscles she had admired earlier.

      With one arm he moved everything that was on the blanket away and she found herself on her back, with Jordan’s body half over hers. But she pulled away, her chest heaving as though she’d run a marathon.

      ‘This is crazy,’ she said shakily, but didn’t move any further.

      ‘Yes, it is,’ he replied, his eyes filled with a mixture of desire and tenderness.

      She raised a hand to his face, pushing his hair back and settling it on his cheek. He turned his head and kissed her hand. And in that moment, under the stars that sparkled brightly on Valentine’s Day, she realised that she might have just fallen in love with a man she had only known for a few hours.

      Even as her mind called her foolish she was pulling his lips back down to hers.

       CHAPTER ONE

      Two years later

      JORDAN STOOD OUTSIDE his childhood home and grief—and guilt—crashed through him.

      The house was like many he had seen in the Stellenbosch wine lands—large and white, with a black roof and shutters. Except he had grown up in this house. He’d played on the patio that stretched out in front of the house, with its stone pillars that had vines crawling up them. He and his father had spent Sunday evenings watching the sun set—usually in silence—on the rocking chairs that stood next to the large wooden door.

      He turned his back on the house and the memories, СКАЧАТЬ