Shrewdly he finished for her, 'Felt guilty because you had let a Killane kiss you?'
She nodded, mouth wry. 'I didn't remember the party or that you had kissed me, you know—I do remember it now that you've reminded me, but until this minute I seem to have suppressed the whole incident, maybe because I was afraid that if she found out, my mother would hate me too?' She thought for a moment, then added huskily,
'Especially . . .' Her voice broke off and she swallowed, her face dusky pink.
'Especially?' queried Josh, arching his brows, but she didn't answer, and after a moment he softly suggested, 'Especially as you'd liked it when I kissed you?'
She looked down, half smiling, but didn't answer. She had already admitted too much.
'I wonder if that's why you were so virulently against my whole family, but especially me, when you came back here?' Josh thought aloud, 'it wasn't just your mother that had made you see us all in the role of seducers and flirts. I'd helped to give you that impression, even if you were suppressing the memory.' He laughed shortly, 'I was my own enemy without realising it!'
'Possibly,' Prue said a little sadly. 'We're all our own worst enemies, aren't we?' Why had she dreamt about that party, the kiss, except that her own subconscious had been trying to tell her how she really felt about Josh? She had dreamt she was a child, and in emotional terms she was still half childish—that was why she had fixed on David for a life partner, because he didn't come anywhere near touching her at that deepest part of her emotions. She was fond of David, she liked him, but she would never have loved him with the intensity she felt for Josh—she had chosen David because he was safe and would never hurt her.
'At least I never forgot you!' Josh said drily. 'Far from suppressing the memory of kissing you that day, I kept remembering it year after year. I wouldn't go so far as to say that that was why I never married, but I think that at the back of my head I had this image of the girl I was looking for and none of them matched up to her.' His dark eyes glimmered with passion and mockery. 'None of them had the right shade of red hair or the right slanty green eyes!'
Her breath caught.
'I love you, Prue,' he whispered, then waited, and Prue shook, fighting a last-ditch battle with her fear and her uncertainty, then she whispered it back.
'I love you.'
'Ah . . .' he breathed, closing his eyes, and his face glowed with triumph; then he opened his eyes and looked at her with an unleashed passion that sent the blood singing through her veins. Josh bent his head, and she met his mouth with all the desire she had been hiding for so long, knowing that she need never hide her feelings again.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
Seductive Stranger Page 15
