The last thing he wanted to do was stop kissing her, but he had to. He eased his efforts to a series of lighter kisses, keeping her close, breathing her in. He knew things would change once he revealed his past, and he wanted to soak in this last moment, memorizing the feel of her in his arms, her fingers brushing the back of his neck, and soaking in her now-familiar scent.

“Kiss me again?” she whispered.

Her sweetness did him in, and he pressed his lips to hers, kissing her slow and tender, wishing he could erase his past and just be a guy who worked at a bookstore falling for a girl who taught dance forevermore.

Chapter Seven

RONI HAD FOUND Nirvana. Quincy didn’t just kiss her. He enveloped her with more than his strong arms and his delicious mouth, which caused her to make sounds she’d never heard herself make before. Emotions poured off this man, and she wanted to swim in them, to kiss him for hours, to have his hands and mouth on her like he had last night.

When their lips parted, she yearned for more. But he didn’t stop there. He embraced her, holding her as tightly as he had last night, and she loved that, too. She felt safe when she was in his arms, like nothing bad could ever happen to her again.

His scruff tickled her cheek as he pressed a kiss beside her ear and said, “I’m sorry for what you’ve gone through, and even sorrier for what I have to tell you.”

A chill ran down her spine as his arms fell away, leaving her longing for them. She’d forgotten he’d come to talk to her about something. “Is it that bad?”

He sat up straighter, wringing his hands, tilting his head in her direction. The desire she’d seen in his eyes was now shadowed with regret. He put his hands beside his legs, and his fingers curled around the edge of the table as he said, “I suppose that depends how you look at it. As you said, all the wishing in the world can’t change a person’s past, and I’ll understand if mine is too much for you.”

“That sounds ominous.” She didn’t know what could be so bad that it would change how she felt about him, and she hoped he was overreacting.

“I don’t mean for it to, but it is what it is. Before I go into it, I want you to know that I’m sorry for not telling you before we went so far last night. I probably should have. You deserve that. But I honestly didn’t think we’d go as far as we did, and I had waited so long to go out with you and was having such a great time, I wanted to experience one last night together before taking the chance of telling you everything and changing the way you look at me.”

“So was that kiss just now a last kiss?” she asked nervously.