Know Your Heart: A New Zealand - Tracey Alvarez Page 0,86
and teased her mouth with soft, fast kisses. She couldn’t get the word “no” out—and she had to stop him because one touch from this man sent her flailing down the slippery slope into “yes, please, don’t stop”.
Glen cupped her face in his hands, bending in to press the tip of his nose to hers. “Hey. I need to tell you something.”
Savannah could only give a tiny nod while her inner voice said, tell him to stop! Don’t let him keep talking.
But keep talking, he did. His thumbs brushed a slow sweep over her cheeks, and his gaze, so forthright and trusting, made her soul shrivel.
“After I had a near-death experience at the hands of your cousin,” he said, “I had a reality check. Ten years ago, I let you walk away from me without telling you how I felt. I won’t make that mistake again.”
He chuckled, a sound that normally sent pleasurable shivers down her spine but now filled her with dread.
“Because I don’t intend letting you walk away. Sav—”
Glen, no, please don’t, her inner voice wailed.
“I love you,” he said.
The words fell like boulders between them, crushing, smashing, obliterating any hope she had of letting him down gently.
His brow creased, the first spark of apprehension darkening his gaze. “Sav?”
“Glen, you can’t.” Savannah’s voice cracked like cheap porcelain, her throat raw with unshed tears. “You don’t. We haven’t known each other more than a few weeks.”
“Oh, but I do.” His eyes crinkled.
Oh, God. He thought she was only denying his feelings in a knee-jerk reaction.
“Love doesn’t give a damn about time.”
Savannah was thrown back to her teenage years. Two years had passed since the divorce, leaving her mother an empty shell…until she figured out she was still attractive to the opposite sex and dived back into the dating pool. A string of giddy, “Oh, Savvy, I’m in love—for real this time! I know he’s the one,” came thick and fast.
But none of The Ones had lasted more than a couple of months.
And now, this gorgeous, wonderful man was laying it all on the line. Telling her he loved her. But how could she believe it—how could she possibly have thought she loved him, too? Jamie had been right. Maybe they were both in love with the idea of being in love. So why did it cut her heart to ribbons as she prepared to break his?
But break it she would. Telling him High Rollers was history and that she had no choice—other than career suicide—but to go to L.A., wouldn’t be enough to save Glen from himself. If she gave him any hope, he’d follow her. Because inside the tough, logical, lawyer shell beat the heart of a knight who would sacrifice all for love.
Not real love, she reminded herself. He didn’t know her well enough to truly love her. But for the romantic images he carried in his head, he’d give up everything for a woman too selfish to do the same.
Like hell would she let him.
***
The walls slammed down in Savannah’s eyes and Glen’s burst of joy at seeing her, barefoot and beautiful, wearing his shirt with sunshine streaming through the loose strands of her hair, bled away.
She watched him the same way a fencer watched their opponent, waiting for a tell, a sign of weakness where he or she could attack. And he’d just exposed a massive weakness. Maybe she’d nearly won a Golden Globe, but she wasn’t that good an actress.
She didn’t love him. He’d once again made a colossal ass of himself over this woman.
“I’m sorry, Glen.” Her eyelashes swept down as she stared at a spot on his collarbone. “I didn’t realize you were getting so serious…so attached. I thought we were enjoying each other, burning off some sexual tension.”
She slipped away from him, tucking a strand of hair behind her ears as she shot him a glance filled with embarrassment and regret…and a hint of pity.
He folded his arms, a gesture designed not only for distancing himself but to prevent him from reaching for her.
“Burning off sexual tension? All those times we made love, it was just part of your exercise program?”
It couldn’t be. The hours spent talking, laughing, losing themselves in the pleasure of each other’s bodies. The connection, the chemistry, the sheer magic between them…
“The sex was fun…”
He didn’t miss her emphasis on the word sex.
—“and I’m not denying it was amazing, but it was only sex, Glen, not love.” Her voice had gentled, as if she restrained herself from