her life for a man. Sure, this could be a little harmless flirting, but it felt like more.
She curled her fingers around his jaw. He was clean-shaven but she felt the fine stubble under her fingers. He turned his head in her palm and dropped one kiss in the center of it.
He nipped the fleshy part of her hand before lifting his head. He looked up into her eyes and she felt the world drop away. She wasn’t aware of where she was or what she was doing. She only knew that she wanted to bask in the intensity of his gaze for a long time.
Standing on tiptoe, she brought her face closer to his. His scent was spicy and outdoorsy. She shut her eyes and inhaled deeply, then leaned just the tiniest bit toward him.
His suit and hers should have provided a better barrier but didn’t. His heat and strength still surrounded her. His grip on her wrist changed and his hand slid around her waist, resting on the small of her back.
“Holly?” His voice was husky and deep.
She opened her eyes.
“I want more.”
She shivered, afraid to ask for what she wanted. But she’d always lived by the rule that honesty was the best policy. “Me too.”
“This could be complicated,” he said.
“It doesn’t have to be,” she said. She’d learned enough about life to know that you took what you wanted when it was offered because it seldom was presented to you again.
“I thought you were going to kiss me,” she said.
“I was.”
“Changed your mind?”
He shook his head.
“Then what?”
“We need privacy for the kind of kiss I want to give you.”
Holly forgot all about everything at his words. He’d shocked her. Not what he’d said but that she’d inspired it. She wasn’t really a lust-at-first-sight kind of girl. But he made her feel like one.
“Mr. Barone?” a woman called from the open doorway.
“Yes, Stella,” Joe said, turning toward the woman but not letting go of Holly.
Holly stood there watching him. The sound of his deep voice rushed over her. She didn’t listen to his words, just wondered what it would be like to curl up next to him in bed, her head resting on his shoulder while he murmured words in that baritone voice of his.
“I’ll meet you in the foyer for your building tour in ten minutes,” he said to Holly.
“What?” she asked.
“Stella needs me to sign a few papers upstairs,” he said.
“Oh. I wasn’t listening,” she said.
“What were you doing?” he asked, that teasing note back in his voice.
“Dreaming,” she said, which was the truth. Reality was that this man would probably never be in her bed letting her rest on his shoulder no matter how much passion was between them. Because that dream was one she’d sought for a long time and had never found. No matter whose shoulder she’d lain on, it had never made her feel safe the way she’d imagined it would.
“Dreaming about what?”
“Being someplace more private,” she said, then stepped away from him.
“Damn, if it wasn’t for my family, I’d sweep you off to my place.”
Ditto, she thought. Family obligations kept them both here when they’d rather be elsewhere. But Holly knew deep in her soul that family obligations would also keep them apart.
“Go do your business, Joe.”
“This conversation isn’t over.”
“It would be better if it was,” she said.
“Do you always do what’s best?” he asked.
“Don’t you?”
“You’ll have to try me and see,” he said, then pivoted and walked away.
Joe Barone was too sexy by half. A long time ago she’d promised herself that she’d live each moment to the fullest. For the first time she trod lightly on that vow because something in Joe made her doubt she could protect herself and remember her own rule. The rule that was more a vow she’d made to protect her heart from loss: Men were off-limits because she had her family to take care of.
Joe couldn’t believe how fast the day had gone. The day that had promised to be endless was flying by. Already they’d toured the warehouse, done a lunchtime give-away of Holly’s winning gelato at Faneuil Hall and granted interviews to the print media. The YMCA kids’ summer day camp was their second-to-last stop.
Holly looked cute with her apron and chef’s hat on. Too cute. He’d tried to retreat behind his wall of silence, but she’d seemed to sense what he was doing and hadn’t let him. She’d kept the conversation going all day and he’d realized he liked the person Holly was. She was a hard worker, which didn’t surprise him. Her days were as long as his, and her family loyalty couldn’t be questioned. She’d taken three calls from her brothers on her cell phone at various points during the day.
He thought more about what he had to offer a woman and realized that he didn’t want to hurt Holly. At best he could give her one night. That was all he had in him. All he’d allow himself to indulge in. And she deserved more.
He forced his thoughts back to the present. The kids at the day camp all got a kick out of asking her questions about baking. She was better with the kids than she’d been with the media.
“How did you come up with the winning flavor?” one of the teachers asked.
The reporters had asked Holly many times over, but still he was interested in hearing about how she’d devised Heavenly Berry.
“I just experimented with different combinations of fruit and chocolate until I found one I liked. Then I gave it to my harshest critics,” she said.
“What’s a critic?” asked a little girl in ponytails. He didn’t know many kids, so he wasn’t sure of her age, but she looked to be maybe five. Holly put her ice-cream scoop down and knelt in front of the child.
“Someone who gives you his opinion on something you’ve done.”
“Like a teacher?” the little girl asked.
“Kind of. In this case it was my brothers.”
“My brothers never like anything I do,” the girl said.
Holly brushed her hand over the child’s head. She wasn’t shy about touching others, except for him. She hadn’t touched him at all since their morning encounter. He wondered why.
“Brothers are like that. But mine are very honest about my
