Page 11 of Leaping Into Love

His expression loses some of the seriousness, his lips curving into a small but noticeable smile. “No, I suppose I didn’t.”

“Well, it was a relief for me because I really wanted the job but lacked those qualifications. Though I did get the impression you haven’t done a lot of interviewing,” I tease, hoping to break through another layer of the tension I created.

“You were the first.”

My eyebrows feel as if they might shoot right off my face. “You hired the first person who applied? For this amazing opportunity?”

“Um…” Gripping the back of his neck with one hand gives me a view of his biceps. Not bulky by any means, just a nice lean, sinewy curve. One I’d like to mold my hand over while I explore every inch of him.

Beneath the water, I squeeze my thighs together, but it does nothing to ease the pulsing need to come. Something I should not be focusing on right now. Especially since I’m alone in this attraction.

“Okay, so I lucked out with my interview. What about the person who did the groundskeeping job before me? Did you have a recruiting company do the interviewing that time?”

One of his endearing croaks slips out, the hand at his nape wrenching as if he’s trying to manually turn his head in any direction but facing me. When that fails, he averts his gaze, looking past me to the thick growth of bulrushes bordering this area of the swamp.

I’m not one to shrink in the face of difficulty, but if I could slink between the reeds and disappear right now, I just might. Since that’s not an option, I have to go with what I know, the straightforward approach. “I’m trying to just go back to our normal level of conversation, but it’s obviously not working. Tell me the truth, please. Did I make things permanently awkward between us? I can’t take back what I said or change how I feel, but⁠—”

“I wouldn’t want you to do either thing.” Still clenching the back of his neck, he meets my eyes again. “I have feelings for you, Tiana. Attraction, certainly, the proof of which you felt, but more than that.”

The words I want to hear, but something is…off.

“Then why did you pull away back there? And why does it look like you’d rather be anywhere but here right now?”

“Believe me when I tell you the only place I want to be is wherever you are. Holding you, even for those precious seconds, was a dream come true.”

Before coming here, I would never have asked a man why he rejected me. I didn’t care enough about anyone I casually dated, plus, it would’ve felt desperate or weak. But that’s not how I feel with Henry, and I do care about him. It’s more than caring about him, I’m falling for him. Pretty hard.

For better or worse, I’m going for it. All in. Because that tingle of connection I’ve felt since the first time we met is still there, stronger every day, and it’s more than wanting to get naked and slippery with him. It means something bigger, I know it in my heart. In my soul.

But what’s in his heart?

Putting him on the spot might be the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. Or the best gamble I’ve ever taken. Time to find out which. “I’m out of my depth emotionally, but every minute since I met you has made me want to be a better swimmer in the pond of feelings. So I have to ask, I have to know. If holding me was a dream come true, why did you let me go? Why didn’t you kiss me?”

“It wouldn’t have been right for me to kiss you. Not then.”

“Because I work for you? If that’s the issue, I can look for a different job. And for a place to rent, since you’d need the cottage for your new groundskeeper.”

“You would do that?” he asks in a croakier than usual voice.

“Yes. If I have to pick between being your employee or being more than that, I choose more.”

“But you said this is your dream job.”

“It is. And it would’ve been enough to make me happy for the rest of my life if anyone else were my employer. I love working on this beautiful property, but I’d be even happier if the meals and conversations we share ended with kisses instead of a nod. If, instead of lying in bed alone and thinking about you, I could see you and touch you because you’re beside me.” A laugh bubbles out of me and carries across the summer air as easily and naturally as butterflies and birdsong. This is the me I didn’t know I could be. I didn’t know I wanted to be.

At the sound of a raven cawing in the sky above, he glances upward, then his attention returns to my face. Still, he says nothing. Just blinks at me, silent, as if waiting for something.

Does he need action to go with my words? After baring my heart in a way I’ve never done in my life, making a physical move will be easy.

The parted reeds slap back to their natural place when I slip away from them to wade toward Henry. “I have never said these things to anyone before. I didn’t plan to say them to you. But I don’t regret it. Even if you don’t feel the same way, I don’t regret that I do.”

“My feelings for you are deeper than I thought I would ever experience. But there are things you don’t know about me. Things that will change the way you see me, and perhaps how you feel.”

“Let me decide,” I say, wrapping my arms behind his neck. “Tell me the things.”

“I wish I could.” If he didn’t want me to know whatever it is, he wouldn’t have admitted anything.

“Are you a criminal living in this isolated town to avoid detection? Or the opposite, living in witness protection because your life is in danger? Or are you committed to somebody else in some way?”