Victoria shot up from her chair and faced him straight on. “If you felt that way, you should have said something much earlier, John.”

They stood in direct opposition to one another, separated by anger and confusion. “I should have. But that’s difficult when I just want to be with you. When I am with you, I try to ignore how silly this whole thing is and I enjoy you.”

“And I enjoy you,” she said in exasperation. “But I have too many things on my plate. I have a suffocating mother who insists on summoning me for parties, while my boss continually questions my competence. And then there’s you...” she trailed off with a furious shake of her head. “You distract me from my path. You’re handsome and smell like a manly forest and you fill my thoughts all the G.D. time. And no other man has made this impact on my life. There, is that what you wanted to hear?”

I mean, it is flattering. Any man would love to hear how he’s turned a woman’s life upside down with his manly forest scent. If he weren’t so damn frustrated with her, he would have laughed and given her a kiss. But what she just admitted also gave him pause. “Are you saying this is your problem? You’re pushing your anxiety on me, which is easy to do because I’m the one with ADD. You may assume my life is in disarray, but I at least know how to keep it halfway balanced. Can you say the same?”

Her chest was heaving in anger. “You’ve forced me and it’s failing.”

He moved forward just slightly, his chest nearly meeting hers. “So asking you to relax is a bad thing?”

Victoria stepped back and took a breath. “John, stop.”

John ignored her and took another step forward. “Stop what?”

Her shoulders slumped in resignation as she peered up at him. Her soft brown eyes rolled upward before settling on his mouth. “I want to kiss you right now.”

“And you’re free to, honey. I told you, a long time ago, that you could have me. All of me. Can I have the same?”

Loops of tangled braids swung from her bun as she shook her head. “This is becoming a problem.”

“You’re thinking about this too hard,” he said, reaching out to palm her cheek. John’s heart thudded in his chest as she moved away from his touch. “How could this be a problem?”

Victoria didn’t answer right away. She dropped her eyes and stared at the floor before shrugging. “I wasn’t thinking when we were in the stacks that night. Maybe I didn’t consider all of the risks.”