Free Listen to Your Heart by Mona Ingram Page A

look stern. He rubbed them gently and
blew on them, brushing his lips against her fingertips. “What am I going to do
with you?”
    They were standing in the soft glow of a
streetlight.
    “Nothing.” She yanked her hands away
from him and shoved them into her pockets. Tears sprang to her eyes. “And stop
being nice to me.” She strode toward the parking lot.
    He stared after her for a moment, and
then caught up. She glanced at him, anger flashing from her eyes, and kept
walking.
    Snow had been falling while they were
inside and she stood at the edge of the parking lot, looking confused.
Everything was covered with a couple of inches of snow.
    Snow melted in her hair as she surveyed
the rows of vehicles. “Where are we?” she said after a moment.
    The despair in her voice almost broke
his heart. He reached out and pulled her into his arms. “We’re right here,” he
said gently, tilting her head. “I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere.”
    She looked into his eyes as he lowered
his head. He nipped gently at her bottom lip, running his tongue along it,
waiting to be invited inside.
    He sensed the moment she gave in. She
closed her eyes and her body softened against him. A small whimper escaped from
somewhere deep inside and her arms went around his neck.
    “Don’t do this to me,” she murmured, and
yet she didn’t push him away. He deepened the kiss, senses swirling. Nothing
about this woman made sense. He’d known her for less than a week and yet he
knew without a doubt that he was deeply, irrevocably in love with her. Love
like that didn’t just sneak up on a guy...did it? He pulled her even closer and
kissed her eyes before making his way back to her mouth.
    She welcomed him as he slid his tongue
into her mouth, probing gently, trying not to frighten her off again. He pulled
back and looked at her. “Dale?” he said tentatively.
    She shuddered and his protective
instincts kicked in. “Are you cold?” he asked, looking around the parking lot.
He’d made a note of the row he parked in.
    “No,” she said with a smile. “But I
suppose we should get to the car instead of standing here making out like a
couple of teenagers.”
    “I don’t know.” He took her hand and
grinned down at her. “I was kind of enjoying it, myself.”
    He led her to his SUV, settled her
inside, started the motor, and then walked around the vehicle, brushing the
snow from the windows. Through the windshield, her eyes looked haunted, and he
wondered how to proceed; how to address what had just happened. One thing he
knew for sure; if they were going to talk, he didn’t want to be sitting in a
vehicle, where he couldn’t see her properly.
    “Let’s go get something to eat,” he said
as he pulled slowly out of the parking lot.
    “I’m not hungry,” she said. She stared
out the passenger window. “But okay.”
    “Pizza all right?” he said. “There’s a
quiet little place near the Lodge. They do mostly takeout, but they have a few booths.”
    She shrugged and he smiled to himself.
    * * *
    “Yes please.” Dale looked up as the
server approached with a carafe of coffee. She upended the cup that was on the
table and sat silently as the steaming liquid was poured.
    Chance pretended to study the menu.
“What kind of pizza do you like?”
    “Anything,” she said. “No, wait. I like
meat and no anchovies.”
    “Then we’ll have that.” He handed the
menu back to the server.
    She cradled the mug, warming her hands.
“You shouldn’t have kissed me.” She raised her eyes and he saw longing there.
It was all he could do not to crawl over the table and kiss her again.
    “Why?” he toyed with his mug, but didn’t
drink.
    “Because I liked it.”
    “Well, that’s a relief. I thought maybe
I’d lost my touch.”
    Her expression softened. “Hardly.” Her
gaze lingered on his lips, then she looked away. “I’m no good at this, Chance. I’m
no good at relationships.”
    He ached for her. “We’re doing