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Raven stepped through the door in front of Tim, still trying to process everything she’d heard tonight. “So…some guy I’ve never heard of is trying to find me and most likely kill me.” She walked deeper into his condominium, absently noting the leather sofa and club chairs placed around a wooden coffee table. There was an elaborate chandelier hanging from the ceiling that offered dim lighting, but that was about all she was able to absorb.
“Is that really what you want to talk about?” Tim asked, turning away from the security system after setting it for the night.
Raven turned around to face him, then shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest as she watched him carefully. “No. Although the thought of being found by a rapacious murderer isn’t high on my list of activities, I’m almost more wary of…the other topic.”
Tim moved closer, watching her carefully. He pushed his glasses higher onto his nose, looking like the sexy, muscular geek that she…loved.
“Why did you run away from me?” he asked softly, his deep voice strong and husky.
“Because you scare me, Tim,” she admitted, staring up at him. “You scare me more than…anyone else I’ve ever met.”
“Why?”
“Because…I’m in love with you,” she told him, a tear escaping to tumble down her cheek. “I know that you don’t love me. I know that you don’t even believe in love. But I do. And it…hurts…to know that you’re looking for someone that is so completely different from me. I know that I can’t be the woman in your life. You’ve told me that from the beginning. You never lied to me. I just…I broke my cardinal rule.”
“What’s your cardinal rule?” he asked, tucking her hair behind her ear with one hand.
“Don’t fall for the client,” she whispered, her words broken and heavy.
“But you fell for me.”
She jerked back, stepping away from his touch. “I need to go,” she snapped.
“You can’t go back to your apartment. You know that creep is waiting for you.”
She started to reach for her purse. “I’ll check into a hotel,” and she started for the door.
“I love you, too!” Tim called out.
She stopped, frozen, letting those words echo in her mind as if she needed to figure out their meaning. Finally, she spun around, staring back at him. He looked so incredibly handsome in the dusky light shining in through the massive windows behind him. The sunset created a neon orange, purple, and yellow glow as it sifted through the clouds and into the room, casting a soft light that illuminated him from behind.
“You don’t!” she countered.
“I do.”
Raven shook her head. “No, you don’t believe in love.”
“I didn’t…until I met you.”
She blinked, not sure if she should believe him. Her heart pounded against her ribs. He looked so sincere! “You said that love was a stupid way for two people to justify their lust for each other!”
He chuckled, shaking his head as he slowly eliminated the distance between them. “I don’t think that I said it was stupid.”
She didn’t step back, but Raven wasn’t ready to run into his arms just yet. “You said it was a way to justify desire.”
He shook his head, barely an inch away now. “Will you please stop throwing my words back at me? I was wrong. I was so damn wrong.”
Raven felt her heart race at his words. Lifting tear-drenched eyes up to him, she searched his face for a clue. “What does that mean? What were you wrong about?”
“Everything, Raven,” he whispered. “I was so damned wrong about love. I didn’t really understand what I felt for you. My life is all about logic and clarity. But you…,” he paused, chuckling and shaking his head. “What I feel for you doesn’t make sense. But you make me feel…incredible. Every time I think about you, I smile. And knowing that I get to see you at the end of the day, even if it’s just for dinner and knowing that you’re going to steal most of my dessert,” he chuckled when she gasped at that claim, “you make me feel better than I’ve ever felt before, Raven.”
“How do you know it’s love?”
He reached up, wrapping his fingers around her neck in a soft, warm caress. “Because I can’t stand the thought of not seeing you every day. Because you ran away from me and I’ve been a complete mess, wondering what I did wrong and trying to figure out how to fix it.”
She blinked, trying to stop the tears as her heart swelled. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I was wrong.”
He shook his head, pulling her into his arms. He heard her gasp, but resisted the need to kiss her. “You were so damned right, it made my head spin, Raven,” he told her. “I was the one that was wrong.”
