“That’s the best time to call it quits, before we get any more involved.”
“Too late for me,” he said. “I’m too into being with you.”
She felt the same way, but this was looking like such a high-risk relationship. Inner alarms were going off. Danger, danger. Step away.
“Don’t.”
“What?” She reined in her wandering thoughts.
“Don’t let my crazy stepsister drive you away.”
“She’s like the dragon at the castle door,” said Zona.
“Let’s not let her win. Let’s take the castle.”
“Even if we take the castle, we might find we don’t belong there,” she said.
“Or we might find we do,” he said softly. “Don’t give up.”
He traced a finger along her chin, leaving a trail of warm tingles. Her eyelids dropped. Almost against her will, she leaned slightly forward. She didn’t see the kiss coming, but she felt it, felt the nearness of his mouth. Felt both his hands on the sides of her face, rough but warm. By the time their lips touched, she was already half melted.
She should have kept her resolve and kept her hands to herself, but she didn’t. Resolve was highly overrated.
“Come here,” he said against her lips, and she shifted fromher chair to his lap, tangling her hands in his hair as their kisses turned white-hot.
“What am I doing?” she said when she came to her senses and pulled away.
“Slaying dragons,” he said, and ran his hands up her back and kissed her again.
Zona the dragon slayer finally had to make room for Zona the commonsense woman, and they both left Alec’s lap. With great regret.
“Okay, enough of that. I am not going to rush into anything,” she informed Alec.
“Okay, no rushing. Let’s hang out on Saturday.”
Darn it all, why should she have to give up being with Alec? Wasn’t she entitled to some happiness after everything she’d been through?
“After my garage sales, and no more of... this,” she said. Because her brain drained of caution and common sense when he kissed her.
“For a while,” he clarified.
“A long while,” she said. They’d be hanging out. Like her mother and Martin.
Except there was one very great difference between what was going on with Zona and Alec and what was going on with her mother and Martin. Where Louise was happily keeping Martin in the friends corner, Zona was sure she was not going to be able to succeed at doing that with Alec. There was too much heat between them.
Which meant someone was going to get burned.
“You’re right,” said Louise, after Martin had left and it was the two of them, sitting on the couch. “You won’t be able to keep this platonic. And who could blame you? He’s a good-looking man. You’re a healthy young woman. It’s only natural that you’re attracted to each other. But this stepsister of his...” Louise shook her head. “She’s trouble.”
“He says she won’t be back.”
Louise dismissed that with a disgusted snort. “Of course she will. It’s never that easy getting rid of a toxic person. My goodness, think ofFatal Attraction. The woman refused to drown and instead came up out of the bathtub with a knife. It’s like that in every movie. The good guy thinks he’s taken out the bad guy and he hasn’t.” She held up a staying hand. “And don’t say that this isn’t the movies. Real life is just as messy and less predictable.”
“So I just give up on him?”
“He’s got a crazy stepsister who doesn’t want you around. Pull the plug.”
Zona sighed heavily. Her mother was right. She needed to pull the plug before she drowned. But how did you pull the plug when you didn’t want to, when you were keeping your hands behind your back?
