“What if we—”
They both spoke at once. Laughing, Lola said, “Do you need to get back to Boston right away? Or is there any way you might—”
“I can stay.”
She gave him a look of unfettered joy—exactly what he was feeling himself. Had anyone in his life ever looked at him like that? If so, he couldn’t remember it.
Because all he could see, all he could feel, all he wanted was Lola.
CHAPTER FOUR
Lola had never been so impulsive before.
All her life, she’d been running from men who were trying to catch her. Until today, when she’d finally met the one she wanted to run toward.
When Duncan looked at her, he seemed to actually see her. He asked her questions he seemed to want to know the answers to, when every other guy only pretended to listen to get her into bed. She also loved how ethical Duncan was in his work and how he didn’t brag about his success or wealth.
She should have been scared about throwing caution to the wind and risking her heart on a man she’d met only that morning. But with Duncan, even her wildest dreams suddenly seemed possible.
And she’d never know for sure if he could be The One unless she risked everything tonight on her heart—and his too.
She waited for the little voice in her head to pop up with a warning. He’s too good to be true. You should be careful.
But that voice didn’t come.
Amazingly, when she was with Duncan, her fears, her worries, her beliefs that she was never going to find the person she was destined to be with disappeared.
“Tell me everything,” she said. “And don’t leave anything out.”
“Right now,” he replied in his deep, sexy voice, “everything can be summed up by telling you that I’ve never felt this happy in my whole life.”
There was nothing better, nothing nicer he could have said. “I feel the same way.”
Unfortunately, the chiming of the clock at City Hall reminded her that they were counting down to his return to Boston. “When is your flight?”
“Eight o’clock tonight.” He looked at his watch. “But even if I left now, I wouldn’t make it in time.” His gaze was intense as he looked back up at her. “I believe there’s another flight out at seven in the morning, though, so I wouldn’t need to leave for the airport until four a.m. That is, if you want me to stay?”
She sucked in a breath. The idea of Duncan staying all night was wonderful.
It was also terrifying.
As if he could read her mind, he said, “I would never pressure you to do anything you aren’t comfortable with. I can find a hotel room in town for the rest of the night.”
But she didn’t want that. She wanted him in her home. Her bed. As soon as possible.
“I don’t want you to stay in a hotel.” Her heart was pounding wildly, as though she’d just asked him to marry her instead of simply inviting him back to her cottage for the night. “I meant it when I said I want to get to know you better. And…” She took a breath. “I know we’ve only just met, but I can’t help wanting you to get to know me better too.” Right from that moment in class when he’d asked her to tell him her secrets, it had felt like he’d been asking about more than just calligraphy pens. It had felt like he’d been looking all the way down into her soul—just the way he was now.
His answering smile only made her heart beat faster. She’d never known a smile could be so sensual. And when he stroked his thumb across the sensitive skin of her palm, it sent shivers—of heat, not cold—through her. “Anything you want to tell me about yourself, Lola, I want to hear.”
She should have been second-guessing her impulse to share her secrets with him. But she felt calm, steady, and surprisingly sure that she should tell him something she’d held inside for years. “When I was a freshman in college, I dated a guy who was the same age as my parents. He was a businessman in New York, but he was often in Bar Harbor seeing clients. I knew my dad would totally freak if he found out, so I refused to let anyone take pictures of us in case they ended up online. I didn’t even tell my sisters, so they wouldn’t accidentally let it slip.”
Duncan didn’t seem taken aback by the age difference, although he did ask, “Was he good to you?”
She’d never told anyone the truth about her relationship with Frank before. How could she when she hadn’t been able to confess to even having the relationship, let alone talk with anyone about how bad it was?
“Not really.” Her next words came out in a rush, as though they’d been waiting all these years for the chance to be spoken. “Frank said all the right things and made me think he actually cared about me, when the truth was that he just wanted what every other guy wants…” She let her words fall away, but Duncan’s expression had already darkened.
“Did he hurt you?” Duncan’s question vibrated with barely quenched fury at this man he’d never met, and likely never would.
She swallowed hard. “Frank wasn’t physically abusive, but…” He’d gotten inside her head with his constant comments about how sexy she was when she dressed in the extremely revealing clothes he bought her—and how nothing she’d ever achieve in life could possibly triumph over the face and body she’d been given. He’d made her feel like she was nothing more than a sex toy. An object to be bent and shaped to his needs, her own needs be damned. “I was still so young.” Young enough not to realize that his “compliments” were actually meant to demean her so that she’d cling to him and look to him for guidance on how to live her life. “I didn’t know how to stand up for myself. All I knew was that he seemed smart and powerful, and I couldn’t believe he actually wanted to be with me.”
“Lola.” Duncan hadn’t let go of her hand and now he squeezed it tightly. “You can’t blame yourself for dating him. He’s the one to blame for not treating you right. Hell, you were only eighteen years old. He should have stayed away from you.”
“You’re right,” she agreed. “He should have. And once I finally figured that out, after he told me I should drop out of school to live with him in New York and be a sexy trophy on his arm, I broke up with him.” The relationship had only lasted a few months, but the emotional scars of wondering if she really was only a pretty face had remained for a long time afterward. “It took realizing he didn’t actually care about me or my future to finally knock sense into me. And,” she added, “when he didn’t seem to want to let me go, I started taking Krav Maga classes, just in case he, or some other guy in the future, didn’t want to take no for an answer.”
Duncan’s jaw tensed even further. “You said he didn’t hurt you.”
“He didn’t. But by that point, I realized I needed to be prepared for the worst.” She exhaled a long breath. “You know what? It feels good to have gotten that secret off my chest after all these years.” She hadn’t realized what a huge burden it had been keeping it in for so long. She smiled at Duncan, the weight she’d been carrying around for so long finally gone. “Okay, now it’s your turn to confess one of your secrets.”