Jennifer Greene - Mesmerizing Stranger

“I don’t have issues! I’m against commitment altogether!”

He nodded. “I know. But Cookie, I’m not leaving you. I’m not going to die in a fire. I plan on hanging around in your life until we’re both white-haired and crotchety-not that you’re not already crotchety. I don’t want to insult you by implying that your heart’s bigger than the sky, and that you’re the warmest, most giving woman I’ve ever known. I do love you, Cate.”

“Stop it. You’re making me nervous!”

His mouth crooked up in a grin. “Good. I’ll practice doing that every day. And in the meantime…I just don’t think you’re the kind of woman who can sit around, rolling in money every day with nothing to do…”

She wasn’t about to let that slur to her character slip by. “Hey, I could do that. I’m lazy. And greedy.”

“Uh-huh.” From his tone, he was obviously ignoring her. “So I’ve been thinking. This is my theory. You open a restaurant here.”

The idea lodged in her mind like a thorn. A sweet thorn. She had no idea how much she wanted it, how much she’d yearned to open her own place, until the blasted man had said the idea aloud. “What?”

“I’ll stake you. But I have terms.”

“What terms?”

“You wear my ring. Left hand.”

Since he seemed to be still walking toward her, she lifted her arms. It was so easy…to just walk right into the warmth of his embrace. “You’ve given out rings before,” she reminded him.

“Not like this. Cate. You’re the one.”

Damnation. A place full of police, no sleep, nerves and heart frayed by everything wrong going on… But when he kissed her right then, the world didn’t stand still. The way he kissed her, her whole world spun like a star. “Harm?”

“Tell me,” he encouraged her.

“I love you. I’m in love with you. But I’ve been afraid to tell you, to say it. I don’t doubt how I feel. But…I’ve never trusted in the future, Harm. I’m not sure that I know how.”

He nodded. “But that’s exactly the thing, Cate. You can tell me what you’re afraid of. Then we can work with it together. The way you’ve worked on this crisis with me. Together. It’s all right to be afraid.”

“It isn’t.”

He whispered, “Yeah. It is. With me. I promise.” And he proved it, showing her with kiss after kiss after kiss…

Eventually the ambulance left. And the police. Finally, there was no one there but the two of them. Sunlight streamed in the windows, a warm day heating up outside, the promise of a future whispering in the breeze. In his kisses. In her heart.

He was right. She could be vulnerable. With him.

lives near Lake Michigan with her husband and an assorted menagerie of pets. Michigan State University has honored her as an outstanding woman graduate for her work with women on campus.

Jennifer has written more than seventy love stories, for which she has won numerous awards, including four RITA® Awards from the Romance Writers of America and both their Hall of Fame and Lifetime Achievement Awards.

You’re welcome to contact Jennifer through her Web site at www.jennifergreene.com.