“I know,” he said. At last, he crossed the threshold. “And I told myself . . . told myself I’d let it go . . . but I haven’t stopped thinking about you since yesterday. And after tonight.” Hesitantly, as though afraid someone might be lurking, he shut the door behind him. “Just the way you looked out there. It was . . . amazing. Believe me, I didn’t screw up dancing because I’m bad at it—which I am. It’s because I wasn’t thinking about it at all. I was thinking about you. God, I couldn’t stop. And it’s not just how sexy you are tonight. It was more. It was the way you lit up the room, the way you charmed everyone and made them happy. You don’t need any special powers to do that, Georgina. It’s just in you, part of who you are. How funny you are, how smart. It’s what made me fall in love you back then, and it’s what . . .” He didn’t finish, and I was glad. If he had said “. . . makes me love you now,” I wouldn’t have been able to handle it.

I noticed that he’d moved a lot closer. I took a deep breath. “It would have been easier on me if you said you just thought I was sexy.” Shallowness I could handle. Not this emotional depth.

He gave a rueful smile and stepped even closer so that we were only a couple feet apart. “Oh, believe me, I do. And it would be a lot easier on me if you weren’t.”

I could scarcely breathe. We were so close now, and every atom in the room felt charged. I felt charged. There was no mistaking the look on his face. He wanted me too—badly. Lust and desire spilled off him, and I knew my own face mirrored those feelings. He was careful, though, standing as close as he dared, waiting for my signal. There was a tension to him, like it would only take one small sign from me for him to explode.

Desperately, I tried to grasp a hold of everything reasonable that I knew. I remembered how miserable I’d felt when he left to go see Maddie yesterday. Hell, I tried to think of Maddie herself—that cheerful, guileless face that trusted me so much. I tried to think of Dante. None of that worked, though, because all that was in my head was Seth, how perfect it had felt being with him. How perfect it felt being with him even now.