The Trouble With Angels Page 0,40

you do to me?" he demanded. "Because whatever it is, stop, because I don't like it. I had a perfectly wonderful life until your lunatic car - "

"Don't you dare talk about Edith that way!"

He raised his hands and drew in a steadying breath. "Sorry. The lunatic in this situation is me. I don't know you, I'm not even sure I want to know you, and yet I spent the vast majority of the night wishing like hell I'd kissed you."

The man said the most shocking things. To complicate everything, he was serious. His eyes were as dark as a moonless night. One thing was certain: he wasn't happy about any of this.

"I like you, Joy," he continued. "I like the way your eyes light up when you're happy. I like the way you have no compunction about giving advice to an official in a basketball game. And most of all, I like the way you wind melting cheese around your fork and then lift it to your mouth."

She smiled and looked down at the sidewalk. "But you wish to hell you didn't like me."

He was silent for a moment. "Something like that."

"So," she said, when suggestions weren't immediately forthcoming, "what do you intend to do about it?"

"That's just it. I don't know."

They strolled past a small neighborhood park and by tacit agreement turned into it. Joy walked over to the swing set she'd played on as a young girl. She recalled the summer days she'd sat on those very swings, arched her back, and aimed her feet for the sky. She'd been a dreamer then. She still was.

"I used to play here as a little girl," she told him. "My mother would bring my brothers and me. I'll never forget those Saturday afternoons in Lion's Park."

They sat on a bench, and Ted reached for her hand. "I want to kiss you," he said, his words soft and coaxing.

"Here?" She looked around, certain any number of people would be watching them. "Now?"

"I know it's crazy. Do you mind?"

Did she mind? The question was ludicrous enough to make her want to laugh out loud.

"I suppose it would be all right," she told him, and closed her eyes. Nothing happened for the longest time. Her eyes fluttered open. "You changed your mind?"

"Not exactly." He continued to look down on her.

"What?"

"Relax," he suggested "You look like a virgin sacrifice about to be offered up to the gods."

She ignored the latter part of his comment. "Relax," she echoed, and sagged her shoulders, slouching forward. "Is that better?"

"A little." He sounded as if he were lying.

"Why do you want to kiss me, anyway?" She had a right to know that much, especially if he was going to insult her in the process. Virgin sacrifice indeed!

"It's a test."

Frankly, Joy didn't like the sound of this. Tests had never excited her, whereas the thought of Ted kissing her did.

He lifted one of her hands and balanced it atop his shoulder.

Two could play this game. She reached for his arm and tucked it around the curve of her waist.

He inclined his head approvingly. He claimed her free hand and set it on the opposite shoulder, then joined his at the small of her back.

Neither moved, content for the moment to hold each other loosely. Time swelled and throbbed between them, and after a moment or two Joy could no longer feel her breath. Ted didn't seem to be breathing, either.

She half expected him to pull away and laugh the whole thing off, but neither of them was laughing at the moment. They weren't doing much of anything except waiting, wondering. It was as though they were both afraid of what lay beyond this first kiss.

Slowly, as if he expected her to stop him, he lowered his mouth to hers. Joy sighed softly when his lips settled over hers. The kiss was a leisurely exercise in introducing himself to her, in learning the shape and feel of her mouth, of acquainting his to her.

The kiss changed gradually, subtly, almost without notice, until it became something deep and urgent. Urgent on both their parts. The intensity of it took Joy's breath away and sent her pulse into double time.

She dragged her mouth from his, needing time to think this through, needing time to analyze what she was allowing to happen. Needing time to gauge the wisdom of it all.

Ted directed her mouth back to his and kissed her again with a need and depth that rocked her senses. He stopped