Up Close and Personal. Maureen Child

him to head for the file cabinet on the far wall.

      She didn’t make it. He stopped her with one hand on her arm and the heat of his touch sizzled against her skin.

      “Don’t you?” he asked, leaning toward her.

      “No,” she answered, her gaze on his mouth as it came closer and closer— “No.”

      She said it louder this time, and he stopped in response. Narrowing his eyes on her, he cocked his head to one side to study her. “You’d deny us both the kiss we each want?”

      “Yes.” When he moved in again, she scuttled back. “I meant yes, I would deny us both.”

      He blew out a breath and straightened up and away from the desk. His blue eyes were cool, his tone brisk as he said, “Fine then. I’ll not push you on this.”

      “Good.”

      “For now.”

      Sunlight streamed through the front window, backlighting Ronan until he looked as if he’d been gilded by angels. Just that thought was enough to make her laugh silently. There was nothing angelic about Ronan Connolly. The man was temptation. He was warm when he chose to be and cold enough to freeze you solid if he thought you were getting too close.

      Laura had already lived through that once. She had thought she could be the kind of woman to have a red-hot affair and not think of tomorrow. She’d learned fast—though not fast enough—that she wasn’t.

      She’d lost her heart to him once. And she’d lost a child. She wasn’t prepared to lose more. Those thoughts steeled her spine and had her lifting her chin. “I’m not interested, Ronan.”

      “Another lie,” he said, mouth quirking into a half smile.

      “Fine,” she snapped, crossing to the file cabinet and blindly yanking open one of the metal drawers. She pulled out a manila folder, not caring which one it was. This was to prove to him she was too busy to play his games. “It’s ridiculous to try to pretend that you’re not … attractive.”

      He snorted.

      “But,” she said pointedly, “I’m not going down that road again. Heck, you’re the one who wanted to get off the road.”

      “Will you forever be throwing that back at me?” he wondered aloud.

      “Why wouldn’t I?” Carrying the folder to her desk, she scooted past him, then took a stand, figuratively and literally. “We were together three months and you ended it two months ago. Time to move on, don’t you think?”

      He looked at her again and the flat, steady stare he sent her way had Laura thinking that he was looking into her heart, her mind.

      “What I think,” he said, “is there’s more going on here than you’ll say.”

      “If there is, it’s my business,” she retorted and dropped the file to her desktop.

      “That’s where you’re wrong.” He planted both hands on her desk and leaned in until they were eye to eye. “If you wanted me gone from your life so neatly, Laura Page, you should’ve returned Beast to me. But you didn’t and that tells me you want me bothered. Troubled. And I have to ask myself why.

      “So we’ll not be finished until I’ve got my answers.”

      Damn it.

      “You can end this today by telling me what it is you’re hiding,” he told her, lifting one hand to push her hair back behind her ear.

      She flinched from his touch, and he frowned. He hadn’t liked that, but Laura couldn’t let him touch her because every time he did, it weakened her resistance to him.

      “Tell me,” he whispered, all hint of a smile gone from his face. “Tell me why I see sadness as well as passion in your eyes when you look at me. Tell me why you took Beast and held him hostage. Tell me—”

      She shook her head and held up one hand in an effort to stop him. “I don’t have to tell you anything, Ronan.”

      “You don’t, but you will.”

      “Because you say so? I don’t think so.”

      “No,” he countered, coming around her desk to stand beside her. “Because it’s eating you up inside to not tell me. It’s on the tip of your tongue at all times, but you keep biting it back. So let it out, Laura. If you truly want me gone from your life, then tell me.”